Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Kurz, Wilhelm Sulpiz

 

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

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

 

Born: May 5, 1834, Augsburg, Germany. Died: Jan. 15, 1878, Penang, W of the Malay Peninsula.

Place and year of birth differ in the various references; on the monument erected in his honour in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens the above-mentioned dates are engraved. 

 

career:

Joined the D.E.I. Army in 1856 under the fictitious name of Johann Amann.1 From 1859-63 he worked in the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg, assisting Teijsmann with the identification of plants; subsequently he was discharged from military service, sailed for British India and then (end 1864) was employed by the Government of India in the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, as Curator of the Royal Herbarium. But for his death, he would have been made a honorary doctor at Munich.

Author of many botanical papers, mainly relating to the flora of British India.2

Several plants were named in his honour.

 

Collecting localities:

1857-58. Banka: in the environs of Batoeroessah.3-1859-63. W. Java: Buitenzorg, Toegoe, Telaga Warna, on G. Pangrango, G. Mandelawangi, G. Pantjar, etc.4 He visited Singapore (Dec. 1863) on his way to Brit. India.5

 

collections:

Herb. Leiden [L]: Malaysian collections; partly also in Herb. Bog. [BO], some numbered in the H.B. series; Herb. Utrecht [U]. The Banka collections3 were sent to the ‘Natuurkundige Vereeniging’ at Batavia, and subsequently handed to Teijsmann, who forwarded the cryptogams and Filices to van der Sande Lacoste and R.B. van den Bosch, and the phanerogams to Miquel.6 Both at Leiden and Utrecht, Kurz’s collections are mislabelled J. Amand (see there). In Herb. Berl. [B]: large collection from Java (a. 1860-61) and mosses from Banka (a. 1858); the latter, we may assume, erroneously stated to have originated from J. Amand (see there); also Java plants in Herb. Vienna [W]. Herb. Calcutta [CAL]: Brit. India collections, including a number of Malayan species, from Singapore etc.; Herb. Kew [K]: 1528 nos (pres. 1867-78); Herb. Brit. Mus. [BM]: 432 cryptogams of Burma (pres. 1874) and other specimens (acq. with Herb. Hampe and Stephani); Herb. Munich [M]; Herb. Lindemann [LECB] (U.S.S.R.): 5 nos.

 

literature:

(1) cf. Nat. Tijdschr. N.I. 27, 1864, p. 15, and 403.

(2) ‘On some new or imperfectly known Indian plants’ (Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 39, 1870, p. 61- 91; transl. by Hasskarl in Flora 1871, with annotations); ‘Forest Flora of British Burma’ (1877, 2 vols); etc.; cf. also sub 3.

(3) J. Amann: ‘Opsomming der vaatkryptogamen van het eiland Bangka’ (Nat. Tijdschr. N.I. 23, 1861, p. 399-412; based on the collections of Kurz, Teijsmann, Huguenin, and Altheer).

S. Kurz: ‘Korte schets van bet eiland Bangka’ (l.c. 27, 1864, p. 142-235; cf. also in Bot. Zeitung 23, 1865, p. 6-8, 15-19, 203-204); ‘Eenige kruidkundige mededeelingen’ (Nat. Tijdschr. N.I. 28, 1865, p. 164-168).

(4) W. Nylander: ‘Lichenes, quos Kurz legit in insula Java’ (Flora N.R. 24, 1866, p. 129-135).

cf. Ann. Cons. Jard. Bot. Genčve 21, 1919/22, p. 273.

(5) cf. Burkill in Gard. Bull. Str. Settlem. 4, 1927, nos 4-5.

(6) cf. Nat. Tijdschr. N.I. 16, 1858/59, p. 334, 349-351, 410.

 

biographical data:

Flora N.R. 36, 1878, p. 113-119, incl. bibliogr.; Biogr. Index Britten & Boulger in Journ. But. 27, 1889, p. 246 and in 2nd ed. by Rendle, 1931; Encyclop. N.I. 1, 1917, p. 397; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; Ind. Forester 4, 1878, p. 1-4.