Treviranus, Ludolph Christian

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TREVIRANUS, LUDOLPH CHRISTIAN

(b. Bremen, Germany, 18 September 1779; d. Bonn, Germany, 6 May 1864)

plant anatomy, plant physiology.

Treviranus was particularly interested in the basic structural unit of living beings-the cell-and in the forces causing structural differentiation, and he therefore studied the various aspects of the relation between structure and function during the ontogeny of plants.

Ludolph Christian was three years younger than his brother, Gottfried Reinhold, Their Father, Joachim Johann Jacob Treviranus (d. 1806), was a merchant who, after a business failure, became a notary.

Treviranus studied medicine at the University of Jena, where F. W. Schelling was one of his teachers. The greatest philosophical influence on him, however, was that of his brother Gottfried. As an adherent of Naturphilosophie, Ludolph Christian sought the causes of the vital processes in life itself; and, like his brother, he denied any difference between organic and inorganic forces, and rejected any physical explanation of the phenomena of life.

After completing his doctrol dissertation (1801), Treviranus established himself as a consulting physician in Bremen. On the basis of his work on the inner structure of plants (1806), which contains interesting observations on the structure and function of the reproductive organs, the University of Rostock offered him the chair of botany. In 1816 he went to Breslau; and in 1830 he and Nees von Esenbeck of Bonn exchanged positions, Treviranus showed a lively interest in the organization and scientific function of botanical gardens; his writings in this field (1843, 1848), however, caused him much trouble, for his ideas did not win the support he needed from colleagues in either Breslau or Bonn.

Treviranus’ major work is Physiologie der Gewächase (1835–1838), a study devoted to the relation between structure and function in plants. It deals with differences between plant and animal life, the elementary structures of plants (cells, sap and spiral vessels), tissues and organs, movements of sap, excretion of water and absorption of light by the leaves, growth and generation, various forms of reproduction, environmental influences, rest and movements of plants, and length of life. The book is still of interest because of the authoritative historical introductions to the subjects, an approach that was characteristic of all Treviranus’ publications. Its practical contents were of less value. Treviranus preferred to use simple magnifying glasses, which prevented him from discovering such fundamental phenomena as the process of fertilization and the formation of the seeds; thus many of his observations were superseded during his lifetime. According to his point of view, influenced by Naturphilosophie, fertilization–in plants as well as in animals—should be mediated by a “palpable matter” (1822, 1831).

Of more importance from a purely physiological point of view were Treviranus’ observations on the influence of chemical substances on plants, a series of experiments that were continued by Heinrich Göppert, his pupil at Breslau; his research on the movement of particles in the cell; and his studies on the movement of sap in trees (1811, 1817).

With his brother Gottfried, Treviranus published a series of essays on anatomy and physiology (1816–1821). The fourth volume (1821) contains contributions by Ludolph Christian on the formation and structure of the epidermis, the structure of stomata, honeydew as an excretion of plant lice and as a symptom of plant disease, sexuality and germination of plants, propagation by means of bulbs, and reproduction in cryptogamic plants.

With Friedrich Tiedemann the brothers founded Zeitschrift für Physiologie (1824), which includes essays by Ludolph Christian on the anatomy and function of sap vessels, the structure of the reproductive organs, the evaporation of water in plants, luminescence and the production of heat in plants, and the impossibility of visualizing the act of fertilization (1831).

Treviranus’ interest in history and the arts culminated in a booklet on woodcuts (1855), in which he considered their use as an aid to botanical learning in the Renaissance (Otto Brunfels, Jerome Bock, Leonhard Fuchs), their improvement (by Conrad Gesner, Matthioli, Dodoens, L’Obel, L’Écluse [Clusius], and Rudolf Camerarius), their decline in the seventeenth century, and their revival in the eighteenth century (Thomas Bewick). In the last years of his life, Treviranus wrote a series of monographs on plant genera, including Delphinium, Aquilegia, Durieua, Astilbe. and Lindernia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Among Treviranus’ earlier works are Quaedam ad magnetismum sic dictum animalem spectania (Jena, 1801), his doctoral dissertation; “Vom Bau der cryptogamischen Wassergewächse,” in F. Weber and M. Mohr, eds., Beiträge zur Naturkunde, I (1805); Vom inwendigen Bau der Gewächse und von der Saftewegung in denselben (Göttingen, 1806); Beyträge zur Pflanzenphysiologie (Göttingen, 1811), which includes the German trans. of a series of essays by Thomas Knight on the movement of sap in trees: “Ueber die Ausdünstung der Gewächse und deren Organe,” in G. R. and L. C. Treviranus, Vermischte Schriften . . .,I (Göttingen, 1816), 171–188: “Fernere Beobachtungenüber die Bewegung der grünen Materie im Pflanzenreiche,” ibid.,II (Bremen, 1817), 71–92; “Abhandlungen phytologischen Inhalts,” ibid.,IV (Bremen, 1821), 1–222; Die Lehre vom Geschlechte der Pflanzen in Bezug auf die neuesten Angriffe erwogen (Bremen, 1822); “Ueber den eigenen Saft der Gewächse . . .” in Zeitschrift für Physiologie, 1 (1824), 147–180; “Bemerkungen über den Bau der Befruchtungstheile und das Befruchtungsgechäft der Gewächse,” ibid.,2 (1827), 185–187; “Etwas über die wässerigen Absonderungen blättriger Pflanzentheile,” ibid.,3 (1829), 72–78; and “Entwickelt sich Licht und Wärme beim Leben der Gewächse?” ibid., 257–268.

Later works are Caroli Clusii Atrebatis et Conradi Gesneri Tigurini, epistolae ineditae (Leipzig, 1830); “Gelangt die Befruchtungsmaterie der Gewächse zu deren Samen-Anlagen auf eine sichtbare Weise?” in Zeitschrift für Physiologie, 4 (1831), 125–145; Physiologie der Gewächse,, 2 vols. (Bonn, 1835–1838); “Ueber die Gattung Lindenia . . .,” in Linnaea, 16 (1842), 113–126; Theorie der Gartenkunde . . . (Erlangen, 1843), German trans. of John Lindley, The Theory of Horticulutre (London, 1840); Bemerkungen über die Führung von botanischen Gärten . . . (Erlangen, 1843), Germantrans. of John Lindley, The theory of Horiculture (London, 1840); Bemerkungen über die Führung von botanischen Gärten . . . (Bonn, 1848); Caricis specierum in imperio Rutheno huiusque lectarum enumeratio (Stuttgart, 1852); “Ueber die umbelliferen-Gattung Durieua.” in Botanische Zeitung, 11 (1853), 193–195; “Ueber die Gattung Astilbe,” ibid.,13 (1855), 817–820; Die Anwendung des Holzschnittes zur bildlichen Darstellung von Pflanzen nach Entstehung, Blüthe, Verfall und Restauration (Leipzig, 1855; repr. Utrecht, 1949); “Ueber einige Stellan in des älteren Plinius Naturgeschichte der Gewächse,” in Botanische Zeitung, 17 (1859), 321–325; and “Lebens-Abriss von Ludolph Christian Treviranus,” ibid.,24 (1866), supp., with an incomplete bibliography.