Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Lotter, Friedrich August

LOTTER, Friedrich August, German botanist, b. in Kleinaupe, Moravia, in 1741; d. in Gotha in 1806. He studied in Prague, and in 1789 was attached as botanist to the expedition that was sent by the Spanish government around the world under command of Capt. Malaspina. Lotter being taken sick in Concepcion, Chili, was unable to accompany the expedition. He rejoined it at Acapulco in 1791, but soon left it again and explored the interior of Mexico as far as Lower California. Afterward he visited Peru, Chili, and the Argentine provinces, returning in 1795 to Europe, where he became professor of natural history at the College of Gotha. He published “ De Usu et ratione experimentorum in perficiendi historia naturali” (Prague, 1787; revised and enlarged ed., Gotha, 1796); “Vermium fluvialum Americanarum, sive animalium infusorium helminthorum et testaceorum historia” (Gotha, 1796); “Flora Mexicana” (2 vols., 1798); “Flora Peruana” (2 vols., 1800); “Reisen durch Mexico und Süd-Amerika” (2 vols., 1801); “Compendium plantarum sponte crescentium circa Conceptium in quo familiae per tabulas disponuntur” (2 vols., 1802); “Icones plantarum Americanarum rarium” (2 vols., 1803); and several less important works.