Schimper, AndreasFranzWilhelm

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Schimper, AndreasFranzWilhelm (1856–1901)A German botanist and ecologist who was a professor at the Bonn Botanical Institute (1886–98) and at Basle (1898–1901). He showed (1881) that starch grains are not formed in cytoplasm, and (1883) that plastids originate from the division of pre-existing plastids. His major work, Pflanzengeographie auf physiologischer Grundlage (first edition 1898, first English edition, Plant-Geography upon a Physiological Basis, 1903), includes his classification and a systematic account of world vegetation based on physiological adaptation, and did much to establish a sound method for ecological investigation.