MEYEN, Franz Julius Ferdinand, a German botanist, has devoted his attention especially to vegetable physiology. He taught botany in Berlin. Among his works are the following—"Researches on the functions of Cells in Plants;" on the movement of sap in plants; "Anatomy and Physiology of Plants;" "Geography of Plants," a work which has been translated by the Ray Society; the organs of secretion in plants; reports on the progress of vegetable physiology, which have been translated into English; "Diseases of Plants;" "Physiology of Fertilization in Plants."—J. H. B.
MEYER, Conrad. Swiss painter and engraver, was born at Zurich in 1618. He was the son and scholar of Dietrich Meyer—born at Eglisau in 1572; died in 1658—a painter and engraver of some repute, and studied also under Matthew Merian the younger. Conrad Meyer painted historical subjects and portraits, but is best known by his engravings, which number in all about a thousand. They include a set of one hundred and twenty-two subjects from the New Testament; twenty-four of the Precepts of Christ; sixty of the Dance of Death, and sixteen of the Christian Mirror, both from designs by his elder brother, Rudolf Meyer; sixty-nine portraits of the burgo-masters and pastors, and sixty-four of the illustrious preachers of Zurich; besides various series and separate plates of sports of children, landscapes, religious pieces, &c.—J. T—e.
MEYER, Ernst Heinrich Friedrich, a distinguished Prussian botanist, was professor of botany at Königsberg. He has published a synopsis of Junci and Luzulæ; remarks on Houttuynia and Saururus, and on Labrador plants; sketch of the indigenous plants of Prussia; commentaries on South African plants, collected by Drege; remarks on coniferæ, &c.—J. H. B.
MEYER, Felix, a celebrated Swiss landscape-painter, was born in 1653 at Winterthur, Zurich, and was a scholar of J. F. Ermels of Nuremburg. He early acquired a reputation by his representations of Swiss scenery; and afterwards went to Rome, and studied the Italian masters and scenery. His reputation for facility and resource was much increased by the celerity and skill with which he decorated two large apartments at the abbey of St. Florian in Upper Austria; and he found thenceforward abundant employment in decorating in a similar manner the residences of German princes and nobles. His works became, however, more hurried and careless, and his later productions are consequently little esteemed. He died in 1713. There are a few etchings by him.—J. T—e.
MEYER, Heinrich, called Goethe Meyer, was born at Zurich in 1759, and studied painting under J. C. Füssly. In 1786 he visited Rome and there became acquainted with Göthe, with whom he contracted a lasting friendship. Meyer established himself at Weimar in 1797, was made director of the gallery there in 1807, and enjoyed the titular rank of hofrath. Here he was in constant intercourse with Göthe, whence his designation of "Göthe Meyer." Meyer divided his time between literature and art. He indeed produced little in the way of painting, his works being nearly exclusively water-colour drawings from the antique or from the works of the great Italian masters. As a writer on art Meyer is the author of some useful works, and he contributed the technical and critical parts to several of Göthe's works, as Kunst und Alterthum, Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert, Propyläen, Farhenlehre, &c. His chief work is a history of Greek and Roman art, "Geschichte der Bildenden Künste bei den Griechen," 2 vols. 8vo, Dresden, 1824, followed by a third volume on Roman art after the author's death, edited by Dr. F. W. Reimer in 1836, which, though a careful compilation of facts, is so defective in arrangement and so wanting in critical illustration and historical digestion, as to be nearly devoid of interest and comparatively useless. Meyer was farther the principal editor of the complete edition of the works of Winckelmann, which was published in Dresden between the years 1808 and 1820 inclusive—Winckelmann's Werke herausgegeben von C. L. Fernow, Heinrich Meyer und Johann Schulze. Both these works suffer from the same unfortunate arrangement. The text is printed separately, and the observations are lumped together at the end of each volume. The eighth volume of the Winckelmann is a good index to the whole by C. G. Siebelis.—R. N. W.
MEYER, James, a Flemish historian, born at Vleteren, near Bailleul, in 1491. He took orders, and as a teacher laboured successively at Ypres, Bruges, and Blankenberg, near Ostend. The results of his extensive researches into the history of his native country are embodied in several works. He died in 1552.
* MEYER, Jan Louis, a celebrated Dutch marine painter, was born at Amsterdam about 1810. A scholar of W. J. Pienemann, he commenced with painting history, then tried landscapes, but ultimately found his true vocation in painting ships and the sea. The Stanfield of the Hague, Louis Meyer is familiar with every phase of the ocean, and learned in all kinds of maritime matters; and he renders with a firm and masterly hand what he so thoroughly understands. "A Ship on Fire;" "a Wreck;" "Sunrise at Sea;" "A Fleet making for the English Coast;" "Dutch Ships of War off Flushing," are the titles of a few of his pictures, and will serve to show his range of subjects.—J. T—e.
* MEYER, Johann Georg, a celebrated German painter, known as Meyer of Bremen, was born at Bremen, October 28, 1813. A pupil of Schadow and Sohn in the Düsseldorf Academy, his earlier pictures were mostly scriptural—"The Prophet Elijah;" "Christ Weeping over Jerusalem;" "Hagar and Ishmael," &c. He acquired considerable celebrity in this line; but he gradually turned to more secular and every-day subjects, and has long been famous as the painter of children. He seizes the characteristics of juvenile life and manners with singular skill and taste, and in such pictures as "Children Playing at Blindman's-buff," "Girls Listening to a Story," "Mother and Children," and the like, produces very charming and popular compositions. Herr Meyer has resided at Berlin since 1852.—J. T—e.
MEYER, Karl Anton, a distinguished botanist, was born of German parentage at the capital city of Witepsk in Russia; died at St. Petersburg on the 24th February, 1855. He was educated at the university of Dorpat, and received instruction in botany from the celebrated Ledebour, whom he afterwards accompanied in his travels to Southern Russia and the Altai mountains. Meyer made a tour through the Kirghis-steppe, and an account of it is appended to Ledebour's Narrative. It was published at Berlin in 1830. The account of the plants collected in 1826 was given by them in a work entitled "Flora Altaica." It contains descriptions of about sixteen hundred phanerogamous plants. In 1829 Meyer accompanied Kuppfer as botanist in an expedition to the Caucasus, and he published an account of the plants at St. Petersburg in 1831. He enumerates nearly two thousand phanerogams. He was afterwards associated with Dr. Fischer as collaborateur in many botanical works, and he contributed numerous memoirs to the Transactions of the Imperial Academy at St. Petersburg. Among these are a "Description of Alyssum minutum;" "Remarks on Polygonaceæ;" "Florula Provinciæ Tambow;" remarks on Thelycrania and on Ephedra. In 1850 he succeeded Dr. Fischer as director of the botanic garden at St. Petersburg, and he continued to hold that office till his death.—J. H. B.
MEYERBEER, Giacomo, the musician, was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794. The eighth edition of the Conversazions-Lexicon assigns 1791 as the date of his birth; and though this account has been authentically contradicted, it has been copied in several biographical sketches. His family name is Beer, and his forename Meyer. In very early life he compounded these into one, and hence the name by which he is known; he then took the forename of Jacob, which, during his residence in Italy, was commonly translated into Giacomo, and so printed on the works he published there, and he always retained this appellative. His father was a rich banker, to the principal part of whose wealth Meyerbeer succeeded. His brothers, Wilhelm the astronomer and Michael the dramatic poet, were both distinguished. Meyerbeer's precocious aptitude for music induced his father to place him, at four years old, under the instruction of Franz Lauska, a pupil of Clementi, who developed the child's talent so effectually, that, at six years old, his pianoforte playing was a matter of wonder. In the winter of 1803-4 he played at some concerts in the theatre at Berlin, and was warmly commended; and after this he took lessons of Clementi as long as that master sojourned in the Russian capital. It has been stated that he was Zelter's pupil for harmony, and it is certain that he pursued this study under B. A. Weber, a pupil of Wogler; that, while taking lessons of him, he sent a fugue of his composition to Wogler for inspection; and that Wogler returned this with copious comments, which were subsequently printed as an illustrated treatise on fugal construction. The next step in Meyerbeer's progress was to become a pupil of the Abbé Wogler, and he went in 1809 to reside at Darmstadt for that purpose, where C. M. von Weber was his fellow-student. Under Wogler's direction he wrote an oratorio, called "Gott und
