He was born in Berlin, and studied at the
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium. He learned botany from
Johann Friedrich Ruthe. In 1837 he graduated Ph.D. from the
University of Berlin with a dissertation on the genus
Cassia. He was a
privatdozent at Berlin and then from 1839 at the
University of Bonn, where he took over duties after the death of
Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck. He worked particularly on Brazilian plants, and collaborated with
Matthias Jakob Schleiden. In 1840 he worked on the collections of
Franz Meyen who had just died. At the end of 1840 he travelled to England to meet the
African Civilization Society, then planning the
Niger expedition of 1841. Taking two years' leave from Bonn, he joined the expedition in May 1841, on the steamer
Wilberforce. He wrote letters from
Sierra Leone and
Accra, and left a journal of the expedition. Suffering from fever, he died on
Fernando Po (now Bioko) of dysentery, on 17 December 1841. ==Works==