Carl Borivoj Presl

Carl Borivoj Presl was a Czech botanist.

Life

Presl was born on 17 February 1794 in Prague. His older brother Jan Svatopluk Presl was also a noted botanist. He lived his entire life in Prague, and was a professor of botany at the University of Prague. He made an expedition to Sicily in 1817, and with his brother, published a "Flora bohemica" titled "Flora čechica: indicatis medicinalibus, oeconomicis technologicisque plantis" in 1819. This work became the basis of Czech botanical nomenclature, but unlike his brother, Carl Borivoj wrote in German and Latin and not in Czech. From 1822, he was the custodian of the zoological and botanical collections of the National Museum in Prague.
The journal Preslia of the Czech Botanical Society is named in the honour of Presl brothers. The botanical genera Preslaea Mart., 1827 from the family Boraginaceae, and Preslia Opiz, 1824 of the family Lamiaceae are dedicated to the two brothers. In 2006, botanists Weigend published Presliophytum, a genus of flowering plants from South America, belonging to the family Loasaceae which also honours Carl Borivoj Presl's name.
He spent nearly 15 years producing the exsiccata "Reliquiae Haenkeanae", a work based on botanical specimens collected in the Americas by Thaddäus Haenke.
Presl died on 2 October 1852 in Prague.