Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Hornstedt, Claës Fredric

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Addenda & Corrigenda)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

 

Born: 1758, Linköping, Sweden. Died: May 1809, Helsingfors or Sveaborg, Finland.

 

career:

Surgeon-naturalist, educated at Uppsala, pupil of Thunberg. He travelled in N. Europe, and in 1783-84, at the instigation of Thunberg, via the Cape to Java with financial support of the Academy at Uppsala.1 During his sojourn in Java he was offered a monthly allowance by the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences on account of his knowledge of natural history. He returned to Europe in 1785 with rich collections in the fields of natural history and ethnology. He stayed for some time in Holland, France, and Denmark, and took his medical degree at Greifswald in Germany in 1786.2 Subsequently he returned to Sweden, where he was appointed Curator of the Museum and Lecturer in Natural History at Linköping in 1787. In 1796 he entered the service of the Swedish Navy, and in 1908 was made a prisoner by the Russians during the Swedish-Russian war. Subsequently appointed Chief Physician of a Russian hospital at fort Sveaborg.

He is commemorated in the genus Hornstedtia Retz.

 

Collecting localities:1

Sailing from Göteborg (Febr. 20, 1783) in the Indiaman ‘Sofia Magdalena’, via the Cape of Good Hope, to Java: Anjer on the W. coast of Bantam (July 24), Bantam (25), Batavia (since July 30); setting out on an inland trip (Sept. 4), accompanied by a Frenchman; in Oct. or Nov. by boat to some islands near Java, visiting P. Onrust, P. Kuyper, P. Dammer, P. Baru, P. Menjangan, P. Dammer Kitjil, P. Putri, P. Ubo Kitjil, P. Ontong Djawa, P. Rumba, P. Atrada; on March 1, 1784 he writes a letter, stating having been ill; on Apr. 24 he writes that he visited parts of Mt Salak and Gedeh (Megmedon = Megamendoeng); sailing (July 22) on the Swedish ship ‘Concordia’, to Europe (on account of poor health, the departure of Radermacher for Holland, etc.); near P. Onrust (23), Angri (= ? Anjer, Aug. 12), and via the Cape of Good Hope and the Azores, to Amsterdam (arriving May 14, 1785).

 

collections:3

During his stay in Java he sent a Herb. Javanense to Bergius, which is now with Herb. Bot. Bergiani in Herb. Roy. Acad. Sci. Stockholm (70 species) [S]. The Java plants were identified by van Steenis.3

He made zoological and mineralogical collections too.

 

literature:

(1) Cl.F. Hornstedt: ‘Anteckningar under en resa till Ostindien åren 1782-1786’ (Skrifter utg. Svenska Litteratursällsk. i. Finland 10, 1888, p. 75-176).

(2) Cl.F. Hornstedt: ‘Fructus Javae esculenti eorumque usus cum diaeteticus turn Medicus’ (Thesis, Gryphiae 1786).

(3) C.G G.J. van Steenis: ‘Account of Javan plants collected by C.F. Hornstedt in 1783-1784’ (Acta Hort. Berg. 15, no 2, 1949, p. 39-43, 1 fig.).

 

biographical data:

In Skrifter utg. Svenska Litteratursällsk. i. Finland 10, 1888, p. 77-80; Krok, Bibl. Bot. Suec., 1925, p. 307-308, incl. bibliogr. (he mentions Sveaborg as the place where H. died); Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936.