Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Thunberg, Carl Peter

THUNBERG, Carl Peter (1743–1828), an eminent traveller, and one of the most distinguished botanists of the school of Linnæus, was born in 1743. He became a pupil of Linnæus at the university of Upsala, where he graduated in medicine in 1770. Obtaining a travelling scholarship, he visited Holland, whence he embarked on a voyage of exploration to Java, in quest of vegetable treasures. He sailed as far as the Cape of Good Hope in 1771, and three years afterwards went to Japan, remaining five years, engaged in making collections of plants, and in observing the habits, manners, and language of the people. On his return in 1779 he visited England, and made the acquaintance of Sir Joseph Banks. In 1777 he was made demonstrator of botany at Upsala, and he succeeded Linnæus as professor of botany in 1784. Thunberg published in 1784 his Flora Japonica; in 1788 he began to publish his travels. He completed his Prodromus Plantarum in 1800, in 1805 his Icones Plantarum, and in 1813 his Flora Capensis. Thunberg published numerous memoirs in the Transactions of many Swedish and foreign scientific societies, of sixty-six of which he was an honorary member. He died in 1828.