Welwitsch (Dr Friedrich)
Original title: Welwitsch (Dr. Frederico)
Friedrich Welwitsch was an Austrian botanist known for his work on the floras of Portugal and Angola. He visited Madeira briefly in 1853, after proposing in 1852 that acclimatisation gardens be founded in Funchal and Luanda.
Austrian botanist, well known for his studies of the flora of Portugal and Angola. He was in Madeira in 1853, staying only a very short time. The year before, he had proposed to the government the creation of two acclimatisation gardens, one in São Paulo de Luanda and the other in Funchal, so that the latter would receive tropical plants destined to be taken to colder climates, and plants from those climates that it would be advantageous to grow in hot regions. Once such plants had adapted to our climate, it would then be easy to make them grow in countries colder or hotter than ours. The few plants collected by Welwitsch in Madeira in 1853 are in the herbarium of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Universidade de Lisboa). Works: Aforismos acerca da fundação dos jardins de aclimação na Ilha da Madeira e em Angola, na Africa Ocidental (1921).
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Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 04
Abroad
- Angola
Welwitsch was well known for his studies of its flora.
Portuguese overseas colony which served as a place of exile for those condemned for the 1668 and 1834 disturbances in Madeira and by the Alçada of 1823. It was governed by Vasco Guedes, Sebastião Xavier Botelho and D. Lourenço de Almada. It was also the main source of the P.O.J. sugar-cane varieties imported from 1933 onwards.
- Funchal
Proposed site of the other acclimatisation garden.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Luanda
Angola. Proposed site of one of Welwitsch's two acclimatisation gardens.
A city in Angola, recorded as a place of exile and as the proposed site of acclimatisation gardens by Welwitsch. Arsenio do Carpo became a wealthy merchant there, and Vitorino José dos Santos directed its municipal public works.
People
People mentioned · 01-
Austrian botanist who visited Madeira in 1853 and proposed an acclimatisation garden in Funchal.