Olaus Swartz

Olaus Swartz (born in Norrkjoping, Sweden, in 1760; died in Stockholm, 18 September 1817) was a Swedish botanist.

Biography

After receiving his education at Uppsala, he traveled in Finland, Lapland, and the West Indies, and explored the coasts of South America in 1783, returning with a collection of rare plants. He was appointed professor of natural history in the Medical-surgical Institute in Stockholm, and became one of the most celebrated botanists of his time.

Legacy

The genus Swartzia, of the order Leguminosae, was named in his honor.

Works

• Icones Plantarum Incognitarium, illustrating the rare plants of the West Indies (Upsala, 1794-1800)
• Flora Indiae Occidentalis (3 vols., 1797-1806)
• Lichenes Americani (Nuremberg, 1811)

Notes

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1889). "Swartz, Olaus". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. 

Further reading

• Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel, Memoir of the life and writings of Olaus Swartz, Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1823.