The New International Encyclopædia/Welwitsch, Friedrich

WELWITSCH, vĕl'vĭch, Friedrich (1806-72). A German botanist, born at Klagenfurt, Carinthia. He studied at the University of Vienna, and in 1839 was sent on a journey of botanical exploration to the Cape Verde Islands and Azores by the Reiseverein of Württemberg. Having been detained in Lisbon, he took up his residence in Portugal, became director of the botanical gardens of Lisbon and Coimbra, and collected 56,000 specimens in Portugal for the Reiseverein. In 1853-61 he traveled in Africa, particularly Angola and Benguela, whence he brought important botanical and zoölogical collections. From 1863 he was in London. He published: Synopse explicativa das amostras de madeiras e drogas medicinaes de colleyidas na provincia de Angola (1862), and other writings.