Carl Ludwig Blume

Ferns: Gymnogramme stegnogramme, a species of Maiden fern native to Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.

Carl Ludwig Blume was a German-Dutch botanist born in 1796 in Brunswick, Germany. He studied medicine and natural history at the University of Leiden and in 1818 obtained a medical appointment in the Dutch East Indies.
Shortly after his arrival in Java in January 1819 Blume was also appointed deputy-director of the Bogor (Buitenzorg) Botanical Gardens. By 1822 he was promoted to director and a year later Blume published the first catalogue of the gardens; Catalogus van eenige der merkwaardigste zoo in- als uitheemse gewassen, te vinden in 's Lands Plantentuin te Buitenzorg.
Between 1819 and 1826 Blume travelled widely in West and Central Java gathering plants and information on their medicinal value in order to find native alternatives to imported medicines which lost their potency during the long voyage from Europe. He compiled this research in the Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië published from 1825 to 1827.
In 1825 Blume wrote to the Governor-General proposing the publication of a large book, Flora Javae and requested a leave of absence to visit famous botanical collections in Europe. A two-year leave was granted in September 1825, and he returned Brussels in 1826 accompanied by 29 cases of plants. When Blume’s sabbatical came to an end in 1828, he was granted a discharge from his medical duties in Java allowing him to continue his botanical work in the Netherlands. The first two parts of Flora Javae were published in Brussels later that year.
In March 1829 Blume was appointed director of the newly founded Rijksherbarium in Brussels. By the mid-1830s 35 instalments of Flora Javae had been published but due to insufficient funding further instalments weren’t published until the late 1840s. During this time Blume also published another work on the botany of the Malay Archipelago, Rumphia.
In 1842, together with Philipp Franz von Siebold, Blume founded the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Horticulture in the Netherlands (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot aanmoediging van den Tuinbouw) in order to revitalise the country's reputation as a centre for botanical study and exotic plant cultivation. His contributions to botanical science were recognised with his invitation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) in 1855.
Blume died in Leiden in February 1862. After his death, 23 plates of Planches inédites for Flora Javae were published posthumously. Over his lifetime Blume became highly regarded in his field with many of his newly proposed classifications still standing today.

Exhibited at RHS Chelsea Flower Show