August Schenk

Joseph August Schenk was an Austrian-born, German botanist and paleobotanist.
In 1837 he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Munich, followed by studies in botany at the Universities of Erlangen, Berlin and Vienna. In 1840 he earned his PhD in botany at Munich and during the following year, received his habilitation for botany with the dissertation "Genera et species Cyperacearum, quae in regno Graeco, archipelago et in insulis". From 1850 to 1868, he was a full professor of botany at the University of Würzburg, followed by a professorship at the University of Leipzig, where he was a successor to Georg Heinrich Mettenius. At Leipzig, he was also director of its botanical gardens.
The genus Schenkia was named in honor by August Grisebach in 1853.

Published works

With Christian Luerssen, he was co-author of . Also, he made contributions towards Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen's "China", and edited the section on Alstroemeriaceae in Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius' Flora Brasiliensis. The following are a few of Schenk's principal works:

Flora der Umgebung von Würzburg. Aufzählung der um Würzburg vorkommenden phanerogamen Gefäßpflanzen. Ein Beitrag zur Flora von Bayern, Regensburg 1848 - Flora around Würzburg, etc.
Beiträge zur Flora des Keupers und der rätischen Formation, 1864 - Contributions to the flora of the Keuper and Rhaetian formations.
Beiträge zur Flora der Vorwelt, two volumes, Kassel 1866-1871 - Treatise on flora of the primeval world.
Die fossile Flora der Grenzschichten des Keupers und Lias Frankens, Wiesbaden 1867 - Fossil flora involving the boundary layers of the Keuper and Franconian Lias.
Handbuch der Botanik, four volumes, Breslau, 1879-1890 - Manual of botany.
Fossile Pflanzen aus der Albourskette, 1887 - Fossil plants of the Elburz chain.
Die fossilen Pflanzenreste, Breslau, E. Trewendt, 1888 - Fossilized plant remains.