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.

### 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. 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_

## 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

## Infobox (scientist)

- **name**: Nathaniel Wallich
- **image**: NathanielWallich.jpg
- **alt**: Portrait of Nathaniel Wallich
- **caption**: From an old Lithography, lithograph by T. H. Maguire
- **birth place**: Copenhagen, Denmark
- **death place**: London, Great Britain
- **alma mater**: Royal Academy of Surgeons
- **author abbrev bot**: Wall.