Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Schiffner, Victor Felix

 

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

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

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

 

Born: 1862, Bömisch Leipa, N of Prague, Austria (later Czecho-Slovakia). 

Died: 1944, Baden near Vienna, Austria.

 

career:

Assistant in the Botanic Garden and University Lecturer at Prague; from December 1893 till July 1894 attached to the Herbarium at Buitenzorg to collect and describe the hepatics of West Java.1 In 1895 appointed Extraordinary Professor at Prague, from 1902 till his retirement in 1932 Professor in the University of Vienna. In 1901 he travelled in S. Brazil.

Author of many papers dealing with hepatics.

Solanum schiffnerianus Witasek was named after him.

 

Collecting localities:2

With his wife sailing from Trieste (Sept. 21, 1893), via Bombay, Ceylon, P. Penang (short stay, coll. cryptog.), Singapore (5 days in Nov., coll. cryptog. in the vicinity of the town), to W. Java: Batavia (Nov. 10) and proceeding to Buitenzorg, making his headquarters there; small trips in the environs, collecting (phaner. too) in Hort. Bog., on G. Salak (Dec. 5), G. Bunder (19), G. Burung (= ? Vogelberg, Tjampea), G. Pantjar (27-28), N. slope G. Salak (end of Dec.), G. Megamendong (Jan. 5, 1894), Puntjak, Telaga Warna (lake); G. Salak, basin of the Tjiapus (twice in Jan., the last time from 27-28), Kotta Batu (Jan., Febr. 7); in the first half of Febr. to E. Priangan: from Garut to Situ-Bagendit, Tjipanas (foot of G. Guntur) (11), to Daradjat between G. Guntur and G. Papandajan, Kawah Manuk, from Tjisarupan to the crater of G. Papandajan, kp. Nangrang (20), Telaga Bodas; back to Buitenzorg, arranging his collections (10 days); trips in the environs, to Depok (coll. phaner., March 16), Pasir Angin (Gadok) (24), etc.; G. Gedeh-Pangrango (Apr.-May), Tjiliwoeng, Soekamantri, Soekaboemi, Mengamendung, Buitenzorg (July 2), G. Gedeh (July 10); Sumatra West Coast (July 1894): Padang Pandjang, Aneikloof (21), G. Singgalang (25-26) (summit, coll. Primula!), G. Merapi (= Marapi) (30); Sumatra East Coast (July): G. Sinaboen(g) and G. Sibajak.

 

collections:

Herb. Germ. Univ. Prague [PR]: Java and Sumatra (his private collection); Herb. Vienna [W]: mainly mosses and hepatics, but phanerogams too, the latter for the greater part unidentified.3 He offered exsiccata of hepatics in sets for sale;4 Herb. Leiden [L]: bot. sp. ‘Iter indicum’ (Java and Sumatra) 3850 nos (purch. 1936/37); Herb. Brit. Mus. [BM]: 113 hepatics from the Mal. Archip. (purch. 1898); Herb. Berl. [B]: ‘Musci iter indicum’ 89 nos; Herb. Kiel [KIEL]: ‘Iter indicum’; Herb. Geneva [G]: ‘Musci Iter indicum’ 230 (purch. 1898/99); Herb. Manila [PNH]: Ind. Mal. hepatics 49 nos (purch. 1931); Herb. Hamburg [HBG]: tropical useful plants; Herb. Univ. Zürich [Z]: 238 hepatics from Java (acq. 1898/99). He made a large collection offchens too;5 dupl. in Herb. Conserv. Bot. Geneva [G]. He collected several specimens of Nepenthes from different localities in Java and Sumatra, which are consecutively numbered, so we may assume that he numbered after study. Few duplicates in Herb. Bog. [BO]. His main cryptogam collection was bought by Farlow Herb. (Cambr., Mass. [GH]).

Recently a paper on his moss collection was published.6

 

literature:

(1) cf. Verkl. Pl. Tuin Buitenzorg for 1893, p. 7 and 25; l.c. for 1894, p. 1.

He is the author of the 1st vol. of the ‘Fiore de Buitenzorg’, viz ‘Die Hepaticae der Flora von Buitenzorg’ (Leiden 1900).

(2) V.F. Schiffner: ‘Verlauf seiner Forschungsreise nach Java’ (Mitt. Ges. Förderung deutsch. Wiss. etc. in Böhmen no 2, Prag 1894, 11 pp.).

(3) Solanaceae by J. Witasek in Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 80, 1931, p. 162-167.

(4) V.F. Schiffner: ‘Expositio plantarum in itinere suo indico annis 1893/94 suscepto collectarum speciminibusque exsiccatis distributarum, adjectis descriptionibus novarum. Series prima Hepaticarum pattern continents’ (Denkschr. math. naturw. Cl. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien 67, 1898, 152-203, repr. 51 pp.); and subsequent Series (in l.c. 70, 1900, 155-218, repr. p. 52-116; and Ann. Bryol. 2, 1929, p. 117-154).

cf. also Th. Herzog in Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 42, 1948, p. 230-241.

(5) cf. Zahlbruckner in Ann. Crypt. Exot. 1, 1928, p. 109-212; and in Ann. Mycol. 29, 1931, p. 76.

(6) J. Froehlich: ‘Die von Prof. Victor Schiffner in den Jahren 1893/94 in Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, Sumatra and Java gesammelten Laub- and Torfmoose’ (Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 59, 1953, p. 66-116).

 

biographical data:

Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; Scient. Pharm. May 1942, 2 pp.; Prof. Rechinger in litt. (Nov. 4, 1970); Fl. Mal. Bull. no 25, 1971, p. 1878.