Biography

Pre-Linnaean German botanist and physician living in Denmark. Originally from Saxony, Joachim Burser was born in the town of Kamenz and he practised medicine in Annaberg until 1625. That year he moved to Denmark where he became professor of botany and medicine at the Sorö Academy. Burser made extensive journeys throughout Europe in search of plant specimens which he arranged into a Hortus siccus. This 25 volume book found its way to Uppsala where it was studied my many Swedish botanists including Carl Linnaeus himself. As Burser had arranged his work in accordance with Gaspard (Caspar) Bauhin's Pinax Theatri botanici (1623) it helped the father of the binomial system in the identification of important Bauhin types. Currently housed at the Uppsala Botanical Museum the 2nd and 5th volumes are missing, they were unfortunate victims of the great fire in Uppsala in 1702.

Sources:
R.E. Fries, 1950, A Short History of Botany in Sweden
Joahim Burser Hortus Siccus, Uppsala Universitet:
http://www-hotel.uu.se/evolmuseum/fytotek/burser.html, accessed 11 October 2010.