Background
Acharius was born on October 10, 1757 in Gävle, to Johan Eric Acharius and Catharina Margaretha Hagtorn in Gävle.
Erik Acharius, 10 October 1757 – 14 August 1819, Swedish botanist who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens.
Uppsala University Hall where Erik Acharius studied natural history and medicine under Linnaeus.
Uppsala University, Uppsala universitet, Latin: Universitas Regia Ubsaliensis.
Lund University, Latin: Universitas Lundensis, Universitas Gothorum Carolinae
Lund University main building, built in 1882, drawn by Helgo Zettervall.
An engraving of Erik Acharius.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Lichenographiæ suecicæ prodromus, 1798.
Uppsala University Hall where Erik Acharius studied natural history and medicine under Linnaeus.
Uppsala University, Uppsala universitet, Latin: Universitas Regia Ubsaliensis.
Lund University, Latin: Universitas Lundensis, Universitas Gothorum Carolinae
Lund University main building, built in 1882, drawn by Helgo Zettervall.
Acharius Medal is awarded for lifetime achievement in lichenology.
An engraving of Erik Acharius.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Illistration from Lichenographia Universalis.
Lichenographiæ suecicæ prodromus, 1798.
Heinrich Adolph Schrader (1767–1836), German botanist, mycologist, and lichenologist.
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Botanist lichenologist physician
Acharius was born on October 10, 1757 in Gävle, to Johan Eric Acharius and Catharina Margaretha Hagtorn in Gävle.
Erik Acharius first received a private education, and then was admitted to Gävle Gymnasium in 1770. Later he matriculated at Uppsala University in 1773 where he studied natural history and medicine under Linnaeus. Acharius was the last to defend his thesis (De planta Aphyteia, 1776) under Linnaeus, and all his life he pursued the Linnaean tradition of research in his botanical work. Like most of the university-trained botanists of his time, Acharius studied medicine, first at the University of Uppsala and then at Lund, where he received the M.D. in 1782.
After receiving his M.D. degree in 1782 from the University of Lund, Erik Acharius practiced medicine and spent the major part of his life in the province of Ostergotland, in the small town of Vadstena. He was appointed town medical officer in Vadstena in 1785, district medical officer in Östergötland County in 1789, director of the new Vadstena Hospital (which he had initiated) in 1795, and titular professor in 1803.
Linnaeus had concentrated on the classification of the higher plants, and at the time of his death was the recognized authority on world flora. The generation of botanists who followed him sought to enlarge on his work by defining new areas of the plant kingdom. Some turned to new areas of the world as sources of plants for study, and others devoted themselves to the previously neglected cryptogams, which despite their large numbers and enormous variety were all placed in the twenty-fourth class of the Linnaean sexual system. As for the study of lichens, German botanists, among them J. Hedwig and H. A. Schrader, had considerably extended Linnaeus’ findings, but only Acharius laid the rational foundations of their classification.
In his first important publication, Lichenographiae suecicae prodromus (1798), Acharius still classified lichens according to the appearance of the thallus, which had been observed earlier, but he soon developed a new system based on structure. His terminology for the morphological description of lichens is still, to a large extent, valid. Using this method, he described a considerable number of new families and species, both Scandinavian and tropical. Some of the tropical specimens were collected from the bark and tissues of tropical plants that came to him in the form of botanical drugs. His advanced views on the taxonomy of lichens were presented in Methodus (1803), Lichenographia universalis (1810), and Synopsis melhodica lichenum (1814).
Acharius spent the remainder of his life in Vadstena, where he died of a stroke while in his household garden examining a Spanish collection of lichens on 14 August 1819, at the age of 61.
During the decades following his death, Acharius’ scientific work was severely criticized, especially by the German botanists H.G. Floerke, G. F. W. Meyer, and K. F. W. Wallroth. Both his terminology and his classification of species were considered defective, and he was thought to have distinguished too many species. In contemporary lichenology, however, Acharius is highly respected, and many of his species are still recognized.
Acharius's major achievement was in developing of a new system based on structure, as well as terminology for the morphological description of lichens, which is still, to a large extent, valid up to this days. Using his own method, he described a considerable number of new families and species, both Scandinavian and tropical. His advanced views on the taxonomy of lichens were presented in Methodus (1803), Lichenographia universalis (1810), and Synopsis melhodica lichenum (1814).
Acharius published several work in this field: Lichenographiae Suecia prodromus (1798), Methodus lichenum (1803), Lichenographia universalis (1810), Synopsis methodica lichenum (1814) and many smaller papers in periodicals.
The plant genus Acharia, several plants species (eg, Rosa acharii and Conferva acharii), and one insect, Tortrix achariana have all been named after Acharius. Likewise, the Acharius Medal is awarded for lifetime achievement in lichenology. The collections of Acharius are distributed over several museums: the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki, the Botanical Museum in Uppsala, the Swedish Museum of Natural History and the Botanical Museum in Lund. His papers are in the Library of Uppsala University.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
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Erik Acharius worked on botany only in his leisure time, but his scientific achievement was nevertheless considerable. He devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of lichens, and his description and classification of them laid the foundation for later scholarship. For a long time Acharius thought that lichens were not really plants, but animals, most closely related to polyps. While this shows the vagueness of the conception still held at the beginning of the nineteenth century with regard to the “lower” organisms and their reproduction, it may also serve to illustrate the problems the lichen group posed before it was established that they are composed of an alga and a fungus living symbiotically. Since only inferior microscopes were available, the structure of lichens remained obscure to Acharius. During the decades following his death, Acharius’ scientific work was severely criticized, especially by the German botanists.
Acharius was a member of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund (1795), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1796), the Linnean Society of London (1801) and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (1810).
Erik Acharuis married Helena Dorotea Scholander (1762 -1804), the daughter of a trader, the year 1787 in Landskrona. After Helena's death Acharuis remarried Margareta Maria Hoffberg on December 31, 1804. She was daughter of the salpeters director, Gottfrid Hoffberg in Skänninge. In total Erik Acharuis had four children, Lars Gustaf Acharius, Jean Torkel Acharius, Catharina Theodora Ohrling (née Acharuis) and Charlotta Wilhelmina Acharuis.
She was daughter of the salpeters director, Gottfrid Hoffberg in Skänninge.
Erik Acharius matriculated at Uppsala University in 1773 where he studied natural history and medicine under Linnaeus and was the last student to defend a dissertation before him.
