Biography

Danish Count Frederik Christian Raben was an amateur botanist who amassed a herbarium of more than 1,000 Brazilian plants. He was born in the county of Christiansholm (later Aalholm) on the Island of Lolland; a county he inherited, along with the family castle, on his father's death in 1791. In 1792 he completed studies in law at the University of Goettingen, Germany, and married in 1794. His wife, having borne him 13 children, died some 20 years later and only four of their offspring lived past 30 years of age.

A keen follower of the sciences, Raben laid out a botanic garden and arboretum on his estate and was acquainted with the botanist Martin Vahl at Copenhagen. He became an eager traveller in the middle of his life, visiting many European countries in the 1820s, where he collected plants, animals and minerals. He was accompanied on a trip to Iceland in 1821 by the bryologist A. Mørch.

In 1829 Raben made a list of the Brazilian plant species in the herbarium of the botanic garden in Berlin and a few years later went to South America to make his own collections there. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1835, which became his base for the length of his three-year stay (which turned out to be the rest of his life). From Rio he made excursions to the surrounding area with the German botanist Ludwig Riedel, who was resident in the country, and further afield to the states of Santa Catarina, São Paolo and Minas Gerais in 1835-1836. In 1837 he visited Santa Cruz and in 1838 made his last trip in the country, to Orgãos.

Soon after his return to Rio, an illness that he had been suffering from (and which he had tried to keep secret) took his life. His Brazilian herbarium contained about 3,000 specimens (1,300 different species) collected by him and his associates, all dated from 1836-1837; there are no records of collections from 1838. In 1839 the material was advertised for sale at auction but not sold. Raben's family kept one set of his specimens and offered another to the Danish merchant and amateur botanist N. Hofman Bang, who sent part of his windfall to C.F.P von Martius in Munich and to Jens Hornemann at Copenhagen (who did not have long to look at the Brazilian specimens as he died in 1841). Copenhagen later received more material from Raben's collections stored at Aalholm. Hofman Bang added labels to the set of specimens he received, which came with little information, while the Raben family's more complete collection included notes made by Raben himself. Ludwig Riedel was not impressed by Raben's collections, which he said comprised of common plants, but others including Martius showed greater interest in the herbarium, describing several types from the specimens (mostly at BR, Meise).

Sources:
O. Ryding, 2002, "Count F. C. Raben's Brazilian herbaria", Taxon, 51(2): 369-376.

Biography

Danish Count Frederik Christian Raben was an amateur botanist who amassed a herbarium of more than 1,000 Brazilian plants. He was born in the county of Christiansholm (later Aalholm) on the Island of Lolland; a county he inherited, along with the family castle, on his father's death in 1791. In 1792 he completed studies in law at the University of Goettingen, Germany, and married in 1794. His wife, having borne him 13 children, died some 20 years later and only four of their offspring lived past 30 years of age.

A keen follower of the sciences, Raben laid out a botanic garden and arboretum on his estate and was acquainted with the botanist Martin Vahl at Copenhagen. He became an eager traveller in the middle of his life, visiting many European countries in the 1820s, where he collected plants, animals and minerals. He was accompanied on a trip to Iceland in 1821 by the bryologist A. Mørch.

In 1829 Raben made a list of the Brazilian plant species in the herbarium of the botanic garden in Berlin and a few years later went to South America to make his own collections there. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1835, which became his base for the length of his three-year stay (which turned out to be the rest of his life). From Rio he made excursions to the surrounding area with the German botanist Ludwig Riedel, who was resident in the country, and further afield to the states of Santa Catarina, São Paolo and Minas Gerais in 1835-1836. In 1837 he visited Santa Cruz and in 1838 made his last trip in the country, to Orgãos.

Soon after his return to Rio, an illness that he had been suffering from (and which he had tried to keep secret) took his life. His Brazilian herbarium contained about 3,000 specimens (1,300 different species) collected by him and his associates, all dated from 1836-1837; there are no records of collections from 1838. In 1839 the material was advertised for sale at auction but not sold. Raben's family kept one set of his specimens and offered another to the Danish merchant and amateur botanist N. Hofman Bang, who sent part of his windfall to C.F.P von Martius in Munich and to Jens Hornemann at Copenhagen (who did not have long to look at the Brazilian specimens as he died in 1841). Copenhagen later received more material from Raben's collections stored at Aalholm. Hofman Bang added labels to the set of specimens he received, which came with little information, while the Raben family's more complete collection included notes made by Raben himself. Ludwig Riedel was not impressed by Raben's collections, which he said comprised of common plants, but others including Martius showed greater interest in the herbarium, describing several types from the specimens (mostly at BR, Meise).

Sources:
O. Ryding, 2002, "Count F. C. Raben's Brazilian herbaria", Taxon, 51(2): 369-376.