Nathaniel Wallich

Nathaniel Wallich FRS (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a medical doctor and botanist from Denmark. He worked in India; firstly in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the East India Company. He was involved in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, describing many new plant species and developing a large collection with copies that he gave to collections in Europe. Several of the plants that he collected were named after him.

Biography

Early life and education
Nathaniel Wallich was born in a Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1786 as Nathan ben Wulff. His father Wulff ben Wallich (or Wolff Wallich) was a rich merchant from Altona, a town near Hamburg, Germany, and then moved to Copenhagen late in the 18th century. Nathaniel changed his name to Nathan Wallich, later Nathaniel, as an adult.

Wallich got the diploma of the Royal Academy of Surgeons at Copenhagen in 1806. At the end of the year he was appointed as doctor in the Danish colony of Serampore, then known as Frederiksnagore in Bengal (now in West Bengal). He sailed for India in April 1807 and arrived at Serampore the following November.

He was an honorary doctor at the University of Copenhagen and member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

In India
Because of bad health, Wallich spent the years 1811-1813 in the more temperate climate of Mauritius, where he continued his studies. From August 1814, Wallich became an Assistant Surgeon in the East India Company's service. Wallich was later appointed assistant to William Roxburgh, the East India Company's botanist in Calcutta.

By 1813 he took great interest in the flora and natural vegetation of India. He also went on expeditions to Nepal, West Hindustan, and lower Burma. Wallich travelled to Nepal in 1821, one of the very first Englishmen to go there, and returned with many new plants. During 1837 and 1838, Nathaniel Wallich served as Professor of Botany in Calcutta Medical College.

He also published two important books, Tentamen Floræ Nepalensis Illustratæ (vols I-II, 1824–26) and Plantæ Asiaticæ Rariores (vols I-III, 1830–32).

Dr. Nathaniel Wallich took charge of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society on 1 June 1814.<ref>Official website of Indian Museum ,Biography of Nathaniel Wallich</ref> Wallich joined the East India Company's Botanical Garden in 1817 and served there until 1846 when he retired from the service.

Death
Wallich retired to London in 1847, and stayed there until his death seven years later. He had a son, George Charles Wallich, and a daughter, Hannah Sarah. Part of his collections are held at Kew Gardens, and known as the 'Wallich Herbarium'.

Species named for Nathaniel Wallich

 Catreus wallichii (Cheer Pheasant or Wallich's Pheasant)
 Clerodendrum wallichii Convolvulus wallichianus Debregeasia wallichiana Diospyros wallichii Dombeya wallichii Dryopteris wallichiana Geranium wallichianum Hoya wallichii Ligusticum wallichii (Szechuan lovage)
 Meconopsis wallichii Memecylon wallichii Nageia wallichiana Pinus wallichiana (Blue Pine or Bhutan Pine)
 Pteris wallichiana Rotala wallichii Rubus wallichii Schima wallichii Schefflera wallichiana Taxus wallichiana (Himalayan Yew)
 Ulmus wallichiana (Himalayan Elm or Kashmir Elm)
 Valeriana wallichii''

References

Other websites

 Nathaniel Wallich and Indian Natural History  (digital archive project by Kew Gardens, Natural History Museum, British Library, Indian Botanic Gardens and National Archives of India)
 Indian Museum
 Wallich Catalog
 Plantae Asiaticae rariores scan on Biodiversity Heritage Library

1786 births
1854 deaths
Botanists
Danish Jews
Danish scientists
Jewish scientists