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The Correspondence of
Paul von Kühlewein (1798-1870) and
George William Clinton (1807‑1885)
Edited
by P. M. Eckel, P.O. Box 299, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri,
63166‑0299; email: mailto:patricia.eckel@mobot.org
Introduction
In the index to the
George W. Clinton correspondence, Research Library, Buffalo Society of
Natural Sciences in Buffalo,
New York, there appear to be
two individuals with the surname Kühlewein: a Dr. Paul de Kühlewein, and a W.
Kühlewein. From the appearance of the associated letters it is apparent that
there is only one individual represented: Paul Kuehlewein, a physician once
living in St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia 1712-1914, now Leningrad,
but, when the correspondence commenced in 1865, then living in Rostock, Germany.
Rostock is seaport, manufacturing and
commercial city of the former north German state of Mecklenburg, Schwerin the capital, the city established on the Warnow
river 8 miles from the Baltic Sea. There is
a university there founded in 1419. Rostock is
an old town, commercially important from early times, being a Hanse Town from 1200's. The Duchies of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz joined the North German
Confederation in 1867, two years after Dr. Kühlewein began writing to Clinton.
Under the heading of
"Important Collections" in the Index Herbariorum (Holmgren et al.
1990), only an A. Kühlewein is listed
with collections at Tartu (TU), Herbarium, Botany and Ecology Dept., Tartu State University,
Estonian S. S. R., U.S.S.R. founded 1802.
Kühlewein is not listed under the important collections of the Komarov
Botanical Institute (LE) in Leningrad.
The herbarium (LE) is associated with the Botanical Garden of the Komarov
Botanical Institute. Leningrad, Tartu and Rostock (which
is just east of Hamburg, Germany) are in a straight line, cutting
across the Baltic, the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland (Tartu
inland on Lake Peipus).
In the index of
botanists published on line by the Harvard University Herbaria, there occur
several variants of the name Kühlewein. Paul Eduard von Kühlewein is given
floruit dates 1798-1870. A. Kühlewein is also listed, as is M. von.
Kühlewein, with a specimen collected in 1925, 55 years after P. E.
Kühlewein's death. Further information from this database indicates A.
Kühlewein is associated with Pl. Altaica with specimens at Wageningen (WAG)
in the Netherlands.
Specimens associated with Dr. Kühlewein from Italy are noted. There is a Hans
Kühlewein with a birthdate of 1911 who specialized in Fungi and Lichens (Authors
of Plant Names). Hans was born 41 years after Paul's death. P. E. von
Kühlewein specialized in algae and lichens, with specimens from Germany, Russia
and Switzerland
that are curated at Leningrad (LE). In the 1990 edition of the Index
Herbariorum, LE did not give Kühlewein in its list of important collectors,
but it apparently does have Kühlewein's specimens. It seems clear that our
letters between Clinton and Kühlewein refer to Dr. Paul Eduard von Kühlewein.
The International Plant Names Index indicates that Paul's areas of research
interest included Pteridophytes and Spermatophytes (not, for example,
fossils, fungi, algae, bryophytes and so forth) and that he has described
species in those groups. However, there is no indication of his publications,
if any, in Taxonomic Literature 2. He was perhaps a collector only, although
possibly it may be a Kühlewein as authority for the name: Equisetum
arvense × fluviatile = E. × litorale Kühl. ex Rupr. , Shore
Horsetail.
In the first letter
to Clinton
(1865), it is stated that "Mr. v K. possesses particularly a rich
collection of Caucasian, and Siberian plants" for exchange. In
Kühlewein's second letter of 1865 he states " I have refused in the list
the exchange of other, but european plants, with the exception of the Algae,
Filices and Carices, but will except the following. I would request you for one
American Local flora, Phanerogamen and Cryptogamen as complete as you
possible could get them. The flora of Buffalo
is welcome." He is also interested in W. S. Sullivant's moss and hepatic
exsiccatae, of which he appears to have the first set, that is, the Musci
Alleghanienses of 1846. Kühlewein appears to be unaware of the Musci
Boreali-americani, coauthored with Leo Lesquereux in 1857. At the time of the
Kühlewein letters to Clinton, Lesquereux was
just about to issue the Editio Secunda (1866) and successfully sent it from Columbus to Rostock
via Neufchatel. Kuehlewein wishes: "1) an American Local Flora, as
perfect as possible. 2) American Carices, Filices and Algae, 3) American
specie which only occur there." Kühlewein offers in exchange a number of
Russian plants (Sibirian and Caucasian) and other European species,
especially from France (Montpellier) and plants of Switzerland.
In the first letter
of 1866 Kühlewein reiterates: "1.
Would it suit you to receive a collection of about 500 specimens of
plants from Southern France (in particular from Montpelier and Helveticae variae)? [=Switzerland] 2. I shall be very glad to receive the
Western American and Rocky Mountain Plants you allude to but what will please
me most will be to get a set as complete as possible of any American locality
for instance from Buffalo. In a general point of view I take a lively
interest in American Filices, Algae et Carices" and also Sullivant's
mosses and hepatics.
In the second 1866
letter, Kühlewein is not too pleased with the quality of Clinton's specimens and reemphasizes his
interest in local species from the vicinity of the City of Buffalo, New York.
He wishes Lesquereux and Sullivant's new exsiccat and asks Clinton to forward to Asa Gray a list of
Russian species, should Gray be interested in an exchange. Kühlewein
apparently has not made contact with Gray until the end of 1866.
In April 1867,
Kühlewein sent a parcel by sea of specimens
"of Western Europe" but these did not reach Clinton, which became apparent to Kühlewein
by April of 1868. Perhaps this parcel was lost, but in his final letter of
September 1869, Kühlewein promises to send his Russian duplicates. These, at
any rate, appear to have arrived in Buffalo,
for there are specimens today in the Clinton Herbarium (BUF). As many of the
specimen-labels in the General (non New York
and Ontario)
Herbarium at BUF are not digitalized, the exact number and nature of Kühlewein's
specimens is not known. Kühlewein died of a lengthy illness perhaps not long
after shipping his Russian duplicates to Buffalo.
Although Clinton usually
mentioned the individuals by name to whom he sent specimens in his collecting
diary or botanical journal (Archives, Buffalo Museum of Science), no mention
of Kühlewein was ever made there.
A small number of
specimens at BUF have been computerized. Graminoids include those from a
"Flora Caucasica" and many are from Leningrad
(Petropoli, at Petropolis, or St. Petersburg). Some are from Sitcha (Sitka) in Russian
Alaska. Perhaps the most interesting specimen is "Equisetum litorale Kuehl. In Ruprecht Symbolae etc. 1846 pag.
215" which possibly is a type. Franz Joseph Ruprecht (1814-1870) was a
Russian botanist born in Praque with herbarium and types at LE. Kühlewein may
have been a collector for Ruprecht as Ruprecht was for Opiz and H. L.
Reichenbach (TL2). Ruprecht became director of the Botanical Museum of the
St. Petersburg Academy in 1855 and at one time "traveled widely all over
the territory of what is now the Soviet Union and published critical regional
floras" including the Flora ingrica (flora of the Leningrad region).
Ruprecht's botanical interests seem to parallel Kühlewein's, his interest in
algae and graminoid genera, vascular cryptogams (ferns or filices), the focus
on the flora of the Leningrad
area. The Symbolae ad historiam et geographiam plantarum Rossicarum,
published by Ruprecht in St.
Petersburg in 1846 would contain Kühlewein's Equisetum
species.
The transcribers
from the labels have written Kühlewein's name with the "de" or the
"von", but quite frequently the surname is preceded by a capital or
lower case "a", often between the "Dr." and the surname,
as in "Dr. a Kuehlewein." As it is not clear that an "A."
Kühlewein existed, perhaps this is a mistake for a lower case "v."
as in "von" Kühlewein, as the letter "a" in cursive, may
be variously open or closed at the top of the stroke. From the label
transcriptions from the specimens at BUF, there is often a "Dr. a
Kuehlewein" or "Dr. A. Kuehlewein" in addition to "Dr. De
Kuehlewein" or "de Kuehlewein."
Since nearly all of
the specimens entered at BUF are from Russia,
especially the Leningrad region (Flora
Petropolitana), one might assume the first package did indeed go astray, but
the Russian duplicate package, sent in the few months before Kühlewein died,
did arrive in Buffalo.
The "young
son" of Mr. Sherman Jewett contacted George Clinton at a meeting of the
young Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (BSNS) and gave him a letter of
introduction, care of Herrn General Consul von Reinecke. This consul may have
been either related to Ottomar Reinecke and his son Edward, who were both
involved in the Buffalo Society, especially in the ornithological and
entomological departments, or related to them. Ottomar was "one of Western New York's greatest naturalists and an expert
taxidermist" (Goodyear p. 183). He was one of the founders of the
BSNS. Ottomar "was in the
printing business with his father" in Buffalo, New York (Goodyear p.
15), which, perhaps, makes it unlikely he was the Consul, von Reinecke, who,
after all, may have resided in Mecklenburg. Ottomar and his relations may
derive from Mecklenberg originally.
Ottomar von Reinecke
In Clinton's
Botanical Journal, Clinton
is associated with the friendly company of E. R. Jewett. The Jewett name was
and is a prominent one in the City of Buffalo,
but no Jewett is associated with the founding and operating of either the
BSNS or the later Buffalo Museum of Science.
The index of
correspondents that Clinton prepared himself, and that more recently prepared
catalogue (1980's) of letters in the Clinton Correspondence in the Research Library
at the Buffalo Museum of Science (herbarium: BUF) gives the following for The
Kühlewein letters:
NAME: Kühlewein, W.
von, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany.
V1: 1:68,180
V2: 2:190
V3: 3:173
(Care of Herrn
General Consul Von Reinecke) Rostock,
Mecklenberg [Clinton
index Vol. 1]
Rostock, Mecklenburg, Schwerin
[Clinton
index Vol. 2]
Rostock, Mechlenburg-Schwerin [Clinton index Vol. 3]
also:
NAME: Kühlewein, Dr.
Paul de, Rostock, Mechlenburgh Schwerein [Germany].
V4: 4:173
V5: 5:118
V6: 6:89
Rostock, Mecklenburgh-Scherein [sic: Clinton index Vol. 4]
Rostock, Mecklenburg [Clinton index Vol. 5]
Rostock (Danhut?)[sp.?] [Clinton index Vol. 6]
As noted above,
these letters represent one correspondent.
P.
M. Eckel, St. Louis
The Letters
1865-1867
Kühlewein
Herbarium Labels from Clinton Herbarium (BUF)
Bibliography
Goodyear, 1994. Society and Museum, a history of the Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences 1861-1993 and the Buffalo Museum of Science 1928-1993. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Vol.
34. Buffalo, New York.
Grun, Bernard 1979. The Timetables of History. After Werner
Stein's: Kulturfahrplan. Simon & Schuster. New York.
Holmgren, Patricia K., Noel H. Holmgren & Lisa C. Barnett,
eds. 1990. Index Herbariorum Part I: The Herbaria of the World. International
Assn. for Plant Taxonomy and New York
Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
The proper citation of this electronic
publication is:
"Eckel, P. M.
2005. Correspondence of Paul von Kühlewein and G. W. Clinton. Res Botanica,
Missouri Botanical Garden Web site. http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/ResBot/hist/corrauth/KuehleweinClinton/1_KuehleweinClinton.htm.
[and lastly cite the date you actually read the publication]."
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