Biography

German-born horticulturist who came to Britain in 1847 and established the firm of Sander & Co. at St Albans in 1881, which would become the most important nineteenth century orchid nursery in England. Sander was joined by his sons and the company was known by several names, the most frequent being Sander & Sons. At its peak it employed some twenty orchid collectors in South and Central America, New Guinea, Myanmar and Malaysia, and opened branches of the firm in the United States and Belgium. Sander published from 1886 to 1895 the vast and lavishly illustrated Reichenbachia, named after H.G. Reichenbach (1824-1889) who provided the descriptions and was considered at that time the world's foremost orchid expert. The cost was enormous and Sander later remarked that the project almost ruined him. Most of the plates were prepared by H.G. Moon (1857-1905), who would later marry Sander's daughter. Euanthe sanderiana (Rchb. f.) Schltr. is one of many orchids named in Sander's honour and the eponymous Calathea sanderiana (Sander) Gentil was originally published in the commercial catalogue (1894) of Sander & Co. as Maranta sanderiana Sander. Faced with the problem of rapidly growing numbers of names for orchid hybrids, chaotic usage and lack of standards, the company was innovative in introducing an international registration system for grex nomenclature in 1895, one of the earliest such nomenclatural standards in the world. From 1961 the system was transferred to the Royal Horticultural Society and managed as The International Orchid Register, containing over 100,000 grex names. The company sent specimens of cultivated or wild-collected plants to BM and K over many years, for identification or as voucher specimens, and numerous live plants went to Kew (1880-1910).

Biography

German-born horticulturist who came to Britain in 1847 and established the firm of Sander & Co. at St Albans in 1881, which would become the most important nineteenth century orchid nursery in England. Sander was joined by his sons and the company was known by several names, the most frequent being Sander & Sons. At its peak it employed some twenty orchid collectors in South and Central America, New Guinea, Myanmar and Malaysia, and opened branches of the firm in the United States and Belgium. Sander published from 1886 to 1895 the vast and lavishly illustrated Reichenbachia, named after H.G. Reichenbach (1824-1889) who provided the descriptions and was considered at that time the world's foremost orchid expert. The cost was enormous and Sander later remarked that the project almost ruined him. Most of the plates were prepared by H.G. Moon (1857-1905), who would later marry Sander's daughter. Euanthe sanderiana (Rchb. f.) Schltr. is one of many orchids named in Sander's honour and the eponymous Calathea sanderiana (Sander) Gentil was originally published in the commercial catalogue (1894) of Sander & Co. as Maranta sanderiana Sander. Faced with the problem of rapidly growing numbers of names for orchid hybrids, chaotic usage and lack of standards, the company was innovative in introducing an international registration system for grex nomenclature in 1895, one of the earliest such nomenclatural standards in the world. From 1961 the system was transferred to the Royal Horticultural Society and managed as The International Orchid Register, containing over 100,000 grex names. The company sent specimens of cultivated or wild-collected plants to BM and K over many years, for identification or as voucher specimens, and numerous live plants went to Kew (1880-1910).

Biography

German-born horticulturist who came to Britain in 1847 and established the firm of Sander & Co. at St Albans in 1881, which would become the most important nineteenth century orchid nursery in England. Sander was joined by his sons and the company was known by several names, the most frequent being Sander & Sons. At its peak it employed some twenty orchid collectors in South and Central America, New Guinea, Myanmar and Malaysia, and opened branches of the firm in the United States and Belgium. Sander published from 1886 to 1895 the vast and lavishly illustrated Reichenbachia, named after H.G. Reichenbach (1824-1889) who provided the descriptions and was considered at that time the world's foremost orchid expert. The cost was enormous and Sander later remarked that the project almost ruined him. Most of the plates were prepared by H.G. Moon (1857-1905), who would later marry Sander's daughter. Euanthe sanderiana (Rchb. f.) Schltr. is one of many orchids named in Sander's honour and the eponymous Calathea sanderiana (Sander) Gentil was originally published in the commercial catalogue (1894) of Sander & Co. as Maranta sanderiana Sander. Faced with the problem of rapidly growing numbers of names for orchid hybrids, chaotic usage and lack of standards, the company was innovative in introducing an international registration system for grex nomenclature in 1895, one of the earliest such nomenclatural standards in the world. From 1961 the system was transferred to the Royal Horticultural Society and managed as The International Orchid Register, containing over 100,000 grex names. The company sent specimens of cultivated or wild-collected plants to BM and K over many years, for identification or as voucher specimens, and numerous live plants went to Kew (1880-1910).