PROFESSOR DR. HEINRICH GUSTAV REICIIENBACI1.
DuKiNG the issue of our sccoiicl volume, the man whose genius suggested its title passed au-ay. Rcicheiibach died
on the 6th of May, 1889, aged 66 years. From tlie sympathetic sketch by Dr. Rcgcl, published in the Gdrtcnjloru.
we extract a brief rccord of his career. The great orchidologist was born in Dresden, January 3. 1824. From liis
father, the well-known botanist, Heinrich Gottlieb Reichenbach, he inherited the tastes and the industry which gave him
a world-wide renown, and in 1845 the youth turned his chief attention to orchidology. Three years later his first work,
Dk enropaiscken OnMdeen, appeared, and in the following year he published his first contribution on Orchids in the
Botanische Zeilung. These articles continued until 1883. A close connection with the greatest botanical travellers
enriched his knowledge and his herbarium ; to Dr. Lindley also, his personal friend, who, as he has often told us, alIo«'cd
him free access to his collections at Acton Green, Reichenbach was much indebted. In 1852 he issued De poUinh
Oyclniicanim gcitesi ac stfuciura et de Orckidcis in artan ct systema rcdigensis, and in i854 the first number of Ihu
Xenia Orchhiacea apjjcared. At Dr. Lindley's deatii, in 1865, he became the acknowledged authority on Orchids.
Before that time he had begun that long series of descriptions and remarks upon newly-iutroduccd orchids in the
Gardeners Chniiicle, with which we are all familiar, and for nearly forty years he worked with unabated energy for his
chosen science.
The following extracts from an obituary notice by Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, in the Gardeners Ckrumcle, May 18th,
1889, briefly sums up his life's work and histoiy:—
" It must not, however, be supposed from our remarks that Professor Reichenbach was e.xclusively an orchidographer.
He is best known to horticulturists in this field, but botanists have to thank him for the zealous collaboration
he gave to his father's grand undertaking—the Icones F/one Germanice et Helvetite—a work cievoted to the description
and illustration of the plants of Central Europe, and of which Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach, the younger, edited the
latter volumes, and illustrated them with his own hand, contributing no fewer than 1500 drawings. The first volume of
this extensive and valuable publication which Professor Reichenbach edited, was, naturally enough, that devoted to the
orchids of liuropc. It bears the title Teniameu Orehidograpkiis llnropcic, and is dated ¡851. ' For ten years,' says the
Professor in the preface of that volume, ' I had devoted myself to the study of Orchids.' Since 1841. then, our Professor
had most diligently studied Orchids, often in association with Lindley, who repeatedly acknowlalged his obligations to
the subject of this notice. In consequence it is scarcely possible to take up a set of volumes of periodical botanical literature,
German, French, or English, or any work devoted to the enumeration of the ñoras of distant lands, without meeting
traces of the Professor's industry and research. Our own columns in particular have been enriched with very numerous
descriptions of the Orchids that have been from time to time introduced into cultivation. Of separate publications we
may mention the well-known Xenia Orckidacea. which has a|)peared in occasional fascicles from 1851. ^\ ith about 900
drawings from the Professor's pencil, and the Observalions on tke Orckids of Central America. Professor Reichenbach
was also the author of the synopsis of Orchid lore contained in the sixth volume of HAtipers .'Iúnales.