Georg Heinrich Mettenius

Georg Heinrich Mettenius (24 November 1823 to 18 August 1866) was a German botanist born in Frankfurt am Main and the son-in-law of the botanist Alexander Braun. He received his medical doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1845 and afterwards studied marine algae at Helgoland and Fiume. In 1848 he returned to Heidelberg as a privat-docent, was later appointed associate professor of botany at Freiburg, and in 1852 became a full professor at the University of Leipzig and director of its botanical garden. He died of cholera in Leipzig at the age of 42. He was a leading authority in the field of pteridology, the study of ferns, and the plant genus Metteniusa, of the family Metteniusaceae, is named in his honour.