Biography

German plant collector and gardener. Hermann Kegel was born at Gerbstadt near Eisleben in eastern Germany and trained as a gardener. He travelled to Suriname in 1844 on behalf of the firm van Houtte of Ghent, who had commissioned him to collect live plants. Kegel penetrated deeper into the interior of the country than many of the other early 19th century collectors there, visiting Bergendal, the Jodensavanne and the Para district before taking off on an expedition along the Saramacca. Despite his zeal he could not go as far as he would have liked because of hostile villagers, and thus returned to Maripaston, where he remained for a long while, amassing more important collections. Again, when he set off along the rover Coppenam he was hampered by his Indian assistants, who would not travel further towards the river Corantine. After another sojourn in Paramaribo he made a second attempt to traverse the Coppenam but fell ill and by the end of 1846 was back in Ghent. He had collected about 1,500 herbarium specimens as well as live plants, seeds and zoological items. In common with his contemporaries collecting in Suriname (for example, Frederik Splitberger), Kegel suffered ongoing illness as a result of his exotic journey and though he enjoyed the position of instructor of horticulture at the horticultural school in Ghent and from 1847 was hortulanus (gardener) at Halle University, he died a decade on from his expedition.

Sources:
A. Pulle, 1906, An enumeration of the vascular plants known from Suriname, together with their distribution and synonymy: 6-7
H.G. Reichenbach fil., 1877, "Orchideae Surinamenses Kegelianae", Linnaea, 41: 119-125
D.F.L. von Schlechtendal, 1856, Botanische Zeitung, 14: 408.