German botanist who worked largely in Africa. Paul Preuss also collected plants in Latin America and Asia. Preuss was engaged from 1886-1888 in Sierra Leone, before taking part in the Zintgraff expedition in Kumba, western Cameroon, in 1889-1892. He then founded the botanical garden at Victoria in Cameroon, of which he was the first director, serving in this post until 1902. Towards the end of his time as director Preuss undertook a trip to the Americas, visiting Mexico, the West Indies and parts of Central and South America including Venezuela and Ecuador, where he collected numerous fruits, seeds and living plants with economic potential. A portion of the collections were sent to the Kolonialwirtschaftliches Komitee in Berlin and others were delivered to Victoria and introduced to agricultural experiment stations. He expounded on his American travels in Expedition nach Central- und Südamerika … 1899-1900 (1901) and published various papers on the plants he found there. In 1903-1904, having officially resigned from his post in Victoria, Preuss made another ambitious trip, this time to the east. He collected plants in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Java and Papua New Guinea on this voyage, after which he does not seem to have done any further collecting. His next significant output seems to have been Die Kokospalme und ihre Kultur, published in 1911.

Sources:
J.H. Barnhart, 1965, Biographical Notes Upon Botanists, 3: 109
G.K. Brizicky, 1958, "The Introduction of Centrolobium ochroxylum Into Africa", Brittonia, 10(3): 104, 107.