Danish physician and botanist. Didrichsen accompanied the Danish Galathea expedition round the world in 1845-1847. He was later employed at Copenhagen Botanic Garden (Director 1876-1885) and as Professor of Botany at the University of Copenhagen (1875-1885).
In the capacity of surgeon and assistant botanist, Didrichsen sailed for the Indian Ocean in the Galathea, commanded by Captain Steen Bille. He was joined by chief botanist B. Kamphøvener, several zoologists and a geologist. The main goal of the voyage was to investigate the Nicobar Islands in order to assess their worth to the Danish empire. (The islands were abandoned by the Danish in 1848 and rights eventually sold to Britain in 1868.) Additional aims were to hand over Danish colonies sold to the British East India Company, to find new trading opportunities in China and to make scientific collections. The ship stopped at Madeira, the Coromandel Coast and Calcutta before reaching its destination, where extensive explorations were made. The return journey made stops at Penang, Singapore, Batavia (Jakarta), Manila, Macao, Hong Kong, the coast of North China and several Pacific islands. The party then rounded the coast of Chile and Cape Horn, hugging the coast of Argentina to reach Brazil before crossing the Atlantic back to Denmark via the Scilly Islands off the south-west coast of England.
The expedition yielded 93 containers of natural history collections, as well as plenty of ethnographic material. The items were left unstudied, however, as the country was plunged into turmoil following the death of the expedition’s sponsor, King Christian VIII, and the start of the Three Years’ War. Didrich officially resigned his role as an army surgeon in the early 1850s to become an assistant at the Copenhagen Botanic Gardens. In 1858 he was appointed docent at the University of Copenhagen and in 1875 professor.
Sources:
Anon., 1887, Botanical Gazette, 12(5): 118-122
D.F. Christensen, 1925, Den Danske Botanisks Historie, 2(3): 293-295
A.F. Maule, 1974, "An Account of the Botanical Studies and Collections of the two Galathea Expeditions, Botanisk Tidsskrift, 69: 167-205
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/D/DidrichsenDF.htm.
