The New International Encyclopædia/Engelmann, George

ENG'ELMANN, George (1809-84). An American botanist. He was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, was educated at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, and Würzburg, and became established as a physician at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1835. In 1836 he began the publication of the newspaper Das Westland, at one time well known through its excellent descriptions of Western life and manners. It was, however, as a botanist that Engelmann became widely celebrated. Although the greatest authority on the North American vine and cactus, Engelmann also gave considerable attention to other species of plants, furnishing reports of his discoveries and investigations to the Government. He was the first president of the Saint Louis Academy of Science; and his valuable botanical collection, so important in establishing the nomenclature of numerous botanical species of America, is now in Shaw's Botanical Gardens, Saint Louis.