BLOG - Carl Ludwig Blume or Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume or Karel Lodewijk Blume or Karl Ludwig or Ritter von Blume (June 9, 1796, Braunschweig - February 3, 1862, Leiden) was a German-Dutch botanist with the standard taxonomic name Blume who studied at Leiden University and became director of the Rijksherbarium.
%201.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 1")
He conducted research on flora in Southeast Asia, especially in Java which was a Dutch colony. Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773-1854) founded the Bogor Botanical Gardens on 18 May 1817 where a year later Blume began a seven-year research period that led to a brilliant scientific career.
From 1822 to 1826 he became Director of Agriculture at the Bogor Botanical Gardens. In 1827 he became a correspondent for the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1855 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Together with Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) he planned the establishment of the "Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot aanmoediging van den Tuinbouw" and this effort was realized in 1842. A botanical journal Blumea was named after him.
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Blume was the son of merchant couple Christiaan Nicolaas Ludwig Blume and Melusine Caroline Sophie Drechsler. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was five years old. He was an enthusiastic child and was interested in the study of pharmacy.
In the early 19th century, more comprehensive exploration of tropical flora began to be carried out. William Roxburgh (1751-1815) and Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) explored India. In Southeast Asia during the Raffles era, William Jack in Sumatra, Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859) and Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (1773-1826) in Java.
Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis (1984) said Blume was very interested in books on foreign travel that had flourished in Germany since the time of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). Blume's interest was to explore many unexplored areas of the world, including the tropics.
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In 1813, using his parents' inheritance to buy clothes and equipment, he enlisted as a volunteer in the 'Lützowsche Jägercorps' which fought against the French.
On December 29, 1814, he went to the Netherlands and the Medical Board of the Dutch Forces appointed him a military pharmacist second class. On 6 April 1815 he was placed in the ambulance of the second division of the troops on the move in Belgium. He was present at Waterloo. According to military records, he was a pharmacist second class at the hospitals of Den Helder and Leiden between 1814 and 1817.
In 1815, Blume was appointed assistant to Sebald Justinus Brugmans (1763-1819) who brought back the natural history collection from Paris to the Netherlands, which had been brought to France in 1795, and carried out his duties very well. The young Blume received financial support from the Duchess of Braunschweig and was encouraged to study natural history and medicine. He ended his activities as a pharmacist at the hospital and received his Doctor of Medicine degree on 9 July 1817 in Leiden.
On October 17, 1817, he returned to duty at the hospital as an M.D., and October 6, 1817 having received the title of medical officer second class of the army and hospital.
On January 11, 1818, he was honorably discharged as a major surgeon.
On March 28, 1818, became a medical officer class two of the army.
On May 28, 1818, he was again appointed medical officer class one in Java.
On January 11, 1819, Blume was appointed deputy director under C.G.C. Reinwardt in charge of organizing Education, Medical Services, Agriculture, Arts, and Scientific Investigations. He was only 22 years old at the time, but was highly respected for his ambition, enthusiasm, knowledge, and energy.
%202.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 2")
He lived in Bogor and married a wealthy woman Wilhelmina Nicolasina Cranssen, but divorced in April 1830 in Brussels. He married Johanna Alletta Wilhelmina Waardenburg and had 7 children.
The government was very concerned about serious tropical diseases including smallpox, typhus and cholera. Reinwardt wrote a detailed report on the state of vaccination in 1818-1819. All civil servants were told to promote vaccination.
Blume was temporarily appointed 'Inspector of Vaccines' that year. He advised that the Government should use local plants rather than imported medicines which often lost their value during long sea voyages.
In 1819-1826, Blume traveled extensively in West and Central Java as far as Rembang in East Java, often accompanied by assistants, draftsmen and people interested in collecting plants and animals. He collected information on all sorts of aspects, including the medicinal value of certain plants and checking epidemics. He collected many duplicates and herbarium specimens in excellent condition.
In 1821, he was in Banten with the civil servant J.B. Spanoghe.
In 1822, he was appointed director of the Botanic Gardens in Bogor. He carried out a large-scale exploration of Mount Salak.
In 1823, he went to Mount Gede.
%203.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 3")
In 1824 he made a large-scale inspection trip with the civil servant G.H. Nagel, gardener W. Kent, and draftsman A. Latour to many places including Kuripan (near Bogor) with its hot springs in limestone which was then surrounded by primary forest, Gunung Seribu (hills southwest of Jakarta), Kerawang, Indramayu, Cirebon, Gunung Ceremai, Tangkuban Prahu, Burangrang and Tegal. He explored the island of Nusa Kambangan which was then completely covered by forest.
In 1825, he re-explored to Rembang and Gunung Parang in Banten. Blume had busy and creative days. Blume's explorations covered a wider range of habitats than those of the two members of the 'Nature Commission' Heinrich Kuhl (1797-1821) and Johan Conrad van Hasselt (1797-1823).
Blume studied, analyzed and described his collections directly in the habitat which facilitated further publication. This fieldwork became a scientific report on many explorations, some of which were published in a number of letters he wrote to his brother Nees von Esenbeck, published in the journal Regensburg Flora (A: 1823-1826).
In 1825-1827, all this material was very well arranged in the Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië which contained a concise discussion of about 700 genera and about 2400 species with 170 families of flowering plants.
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Steenis (1984) said Blume made a very good work, for only a few books. At that time he had Willdenow, Species Plantarum, Persoon, Synopsis, Sprengel, Anleitung and Systema Vegeta-bilium, de Jussieu, Familles des Plantes, Roxburgh, Flora Indica vol. 1, and W. Jack, Malayan Miscellanies, Rheede and Rumphius.
%204.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 4")
The writing of the Bijdragen itself was a very heavy task, because many genera and species were new to science. This research work appears to have been of very high quality, since a large number of his newly proposed genera are still extant, always good taxa, and later often still recognized as subgenera.
Blume almost never failed to recognize the correct relationships and to place them in the correct families. A remarkable systematic capacity considering the rather primitive state of tropical botany in his time. Blume's skill in this area also emerged from the first attempt to construct a system of affinities for tropical orchids set out in Tabellen en Platen voor de Javaansche Orchideën (A: 1825) published in part together with volume 6 of Bijdragen.
Read more:
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië. Batavia, Ter Lands Drukkerij, 1825-1826, DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.395 on Naturalis Biodiversity Center (August 18, 2024).
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Enumeratio plantarum Javae et insularum adjacentium : minus cognitarum vel novarum ex herbariis Reinwardtii, Kuhlii, Hasseltii et Blumii. Lugduni Batavorum, Apud J.W. van Leeuwen, 1827-1830, DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.44901 on Biodiversity Haritage Library (August 18, 2024).
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Museum botanicum Lugduno-Batavum, sive, Stirpium exoticarum novarum vel minus cognitarum ex vivis aut siccis brevis expositio et descriptio. Lugduni-Batavorum E.J. Brill 1849-[56], DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.274 on Biodiversity Haritage Library (August 18, 2024).
van Steenis, C. G. G. J. (1984). Dedication, Flora Malesiana - Series 1, Spermatophyta, 10(1), 6–43. on Naturalis Biodiversity Center (August 18, 2024).
By Aryo Bandoro
Founder of Dlium.com. You can follow him on X: @Abandoro.
%201.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 1")
He conducted research on flora in Southeast Asia, especially in Java which was a Dutch colony. Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773-1854) founded the Bogor Botanical Gardens on 18 May 1817 where a year later Blume began a seven-year research period that led to a brilliant scientific career.
From 1822 to 1826 he became Director of Agriculture at the Bogor Botanical Gardens. In 1827 he became a correspondent for the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1855 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Together with Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) he planned the establishment of the "Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot aanmoediging van den Tuinbouw" and this effort was realized in 1842. A botanical journal Blumea was named after him.
+++++
Blume was the son of merchant couple Christiaan Nicolaas Ludwig Blume and Melusine Caroline Sophie Drechsler. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was five years old. He was an enthusiastic child and was interested in the study of pharmacy.
In the early 19th century, more comprehensive exploration of tropical flora began to be carried out. William Roxburgh (1751-1815) and Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) explored India. In Southeast Asia during the Raffles era, William Jack in Sumatra, Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859) and Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (1773-1826) in Java.
Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis (1984) said Blume was very interested in books on foreign travel that had flourished in Germany since the time of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). Blume's interest was to explore many unexplored areas of the world, including the tropics.
+++++
In 1813, using his parents' inheritance to buy clothes and equipment, he enlisted as a volunteer in the 'Lützowsche Jägercorps' which fought against the French.
On December 29, 1814, he went to the Netherlands and the Medical Board of the Dutch Forces appointed him a military pharmacist second class. On 6 April 1815 he was placed in the ambulance of the second division of the troops on the move in Belgium. He was present at Waterloo. According to military records, he was a pharmacist second class at the hospitals of Den Helder and Leiden between 1814 and 1817.
In 1815, Blume was appointed assistant to Sebald Justinus Brugmans (1763-1819) who brought back the natural history collection from Paris to the Netherlands, which had been brought to France in 1795, and carried out his duties very well. The young Blume received financial support from the Duchess of Braunschweig and was encouraged to study natural history and medicine. He ended his activities as a pharmacist at the hospital and received his Doctor of Medicine degree on 9 July 1817 in Leiden.
On October 17, 1817, he returned to duty at the hospital as an M.D., and October 6, 1817 having received the title of medical officer second class of the army and hospital.
On January 11, 1818, he was honorably discharged as a major surgeon.
On March 28, 1818, became a medical officer class two of the army.
On May 28, 1818, he was again appointed medical officer class one in Java.
On January 11, 1819, Blume was appointed deputy director under C.G.C. Reinwardt in charge of organizing Education, Medical Services, Agriculture, Arts, and Scientific Investigations. He was only 22 years old at the time, but was highly respected for his ambition, enthusiasm, knowledge, and energy.
%202.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 2")
He lived in Bogor and married a wealthy woman Wilhelmina Nicolasina Cranssen, but divorced in April 1830 in Brussels. He married Johanna Alletta Wilhelmina Waardenburg and had 7 children.
The government was very concerned about serious tropical diseases including smallpox, typhus and cholera. Reinwardt wrote a detailed report on the state of vaccination in 1818-1819. All civil servants were told to promote vaccination.
Blume was temporarily appointed 'Inspector of Vaccines' that year. He advised that the Government should use local plants rather than imported medicines which often lost their value during long sea voyages.
In 1819-1826, Blume traveled extensively in West and Central Java as far as Rembang in East Java, often accompanied by assistants, draftsmen and people interested in collecting plants and animals. He collected information on all sorts of aspects, including the medicinal value of certain plants and checking epidemics. He collected many duplicates and herbarium specimens in excellent condition.
In 1821, he was in Banten with the civil servant J.B. Spanoghe.
In 1822, he was appointed director of the Botanic Gardens in Bogor. He carried out a large-scale exploration of Mount Salak.
In 1823, he went to Mount Gede.
%203.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 3")
In 1824 he made a large-scale inspection trip with the civil servant G.H. Nagel, gardener W. Kent, and draftsman A. Latour to many places including Kuripan (near Bogor) with its hot springs in limestone which was then surrounded by primary forest, Gunung Seribu (hills southwest of Jakarta), Kerawang, Indramayu, Cirebon, Gunung Ceremai, Tangkuban Prahu, Burangrang and Tegal. He explored the island of Nusa Kambangan which was then completely covered by forest.
In 1825, he re-explored to Rembang and Gunung Parang in Banten. Blume had busy and creative days. Blume's explorations covered a wider range of habitats than those of the two members of the 'Nature Commission' Heinrich Kuhl (1797-1821) and Johan Conrad van Hasselt (1797-1823).
Blume studied, analyzed and described his collections directly in the habitat which facilitated further publication. This fieldwork became a scientific report on many explorations, some of which were published in a number of letters he wrote to his brother Nees von Esenbeck, published in the journal Regensburg Flora (A: 1823-1826).
In 1825-1827, all this material was very well arranged in the Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië which contained a concise discussion of about 700 genera and about 2400 species with 170 families of flowering plants.
+++++
Steenis (1984) said Blume made a very good work, for only a few books. At that time he had Willdenow, Species Plantarum, Persoon, Synopsis, Sprengel, Anleitung and Systema Vegeta-bilium, de Jussieu, Familles des Plantes, Roxburgh, Flora Indica vol. 1, and W. Jack, Malayan Miscellanies, Rheede and Rumphius.
%204.webp "Carl Ludwig Blume (1796-1862) 4")
The writing of the Bijdragen itself was a very heavy task, because many genera and species were new to science. This research work appears to have been of very high quality, since a large number of his newly proposed genera are still extant, always good taxa, and later often still recognized as subgenera.
Blume almost never failed to recognize the correct relationships and to place them in the correct families. A remarkable systematic capacity considering the rather primitive state of tropical botany in his time. Blume's skill in this area also emerged from the first attempt to construct a system of affinities for tropical orchids set out in Tabellen en Platen voor de Javaansche Orchideën (A: 1825) published in part together with volume 6 of Bijdragen.
Read more:
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië. Batavia, Ter Lands Drukkerij, 1825-1826, DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.395 on Naturalis Biodiversity Center (August 18, 2024).
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Enumeratio plantarum Javae et insularum adjacentium : minus cognitarum vel novarum ex herbariis Reinwardtii, Kuhlii, Hasseltii et Blumii. Lugduni Batavorum, Apud J.W. van Leeuwen, 1827-1830, DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.44901 on Biodiversity Haritage Library (August 18, 2024).
Blume, C. L. (1796-1862). Museum botanicum Lugduno-Batavum, sive, Stirpium exoticarum novarum vel minus cognitarum ex vivis aut siccis brevis expositio et descriptio. Lugduni-Batavorum E.J. Brill 1849-[56], DOI:10.5962/bhl.title.274 on Biodiversity Haritage Library (August 18, 2024).
van Steenis, C. G. G. J. (1984). Dedication, Flora Malesiana - Series 1, Spermatophyta, 10(1), 6–43. on Naturalis Biodiversity Center (August 18, 2024).
By Aryo Bandoro
Founder of Dlium.com. You can follow him on X: @Abandoro.