He was already a
lawyer when he in the summer of 1812 travelled to
Norway with the Norwegian
botanist Christen Smith. On this journey, he was strongly impressed with the conspicuous zonal division of the mountain
vegetation and distribution of plant species in relation to
altitude. Back in
Copenhagen, he attended the lectures given by
Martin Vahl and
J.W. Hornemann. While earning for his living as a lawyer, he delved into the copious literature on
plant geography, e.g. by
Wahlenberg and
von Humboldt. The first result of his efforts was a doctoral dissertation (1816):
Dissertatio de sedibus plantarum originariis. In this thesis, he dealt with the question of
Generatio aequivoca, that is the origin of species through continuous evolution, a view he advocated. He was then given a travel grant to study
phytogeography in Southern
Europe and to visit
A. P. de Candolle in
Geneva. The expectations of his scientific potential were so great that King
Frederik VI granted him an extraordinary professorship of
botany at the
University of Copenhagen. In 1822, his most significant contribution was published: •
Grundtræk til en almindelig Plantegeographie. Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag. German translation:
Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie, Berlin 1823. His later scientific contributions turned out to be rather meagre. He planned a great work and gathered material for it during two journeys to
Italy. However, he never had time to continue his work. Together with
Jens Vahl and
Salomon Drejer, Schouw was the publisher of
Flora Danica fasc. 38. He succeeded
Jens Wilken Hornemann as director of
Copenhagen Botanical Garden in 1841–1852. In 1841, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. ==Politics==