A fresh wind blew in my face and brought a variety of aromas of all the herbs that shone in front of me with the bright colors of their flowers, a feeling of delight seized me, and I threw myself on this fragrant carpet in some special ecstasy.
A.N. Beketov, Essays on Virgin Nature.
196 years ago, Andrey Nikolayevich Beketov was born: an outstanding Russian botanist, organizer, and popularizer of science, founder of plant geography in Russia, rector of Saint Petersburg Imperial University (1876-1883).
Andrey Beketov wrote the first generalizing study on plant geography in Russia, researched the flora of the Saint Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, and Yekaterinoslav Governorates, translated the works of foreign scientists on botany into Russian, initiated the creation of Higher Women’s (Bestuzhev) Courses (one of the first women’s higher education institutions in Russia), together with Christopher Gobi organized the publication of the first Russian botanical journal Botanical Notes.
Andrey Beketov’s lectures were very popular, and his scientific and popular scientific articles were regularly published in such publications as Moskovskie Vedomosti, Russkiy Vestnik, Bulletin of Natural Sciences, etc. While working in Saint Petersburg, Beketov trained a whole galaxy of scientists, among them such outstanding names as K.A. Timiryazev, I.I. Schmalhausen, G.I. Tanfilyev, and others.
The scientist passed away on July 14, 1902, at the age of 76.
Based on open sources.
Photo: oraziopuccio / 123RF
