Carl Bernhard von Trinius

Carl Bernhard von Trinius (1778 to 1844) was a German-born botanist and medical doctor, born in Eisleben and died in St Petersburg. He studied medicine at several universities and earned his medical doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1802. After a period as a physician in Hasenpoth he served from 1808 as personal physician to Antoinette, Duchess of Württemberg, for sixteen years, travelling widely in Germany and Russia. After her death in 1824 he remained in St Petersburg as an imperial physician and dealt with botanical concerns at the Academy of Sciences, and from 1829 to 1833 he taught natural sciences to the future Russian emperor Alexander II. As a botanist he was a specialist in grasses and described many species, among them Agrostis pallens, Cenchrus agrimonioides and Festuca subulata; his better known publications include Species graminum, published from 1828 to 1836. His herbarium of some 4000 to 5000 plants was bequeathed to the botanical museum in St Petersburg, and as a physician he was known for a homeopathic approach.