William Nylander (botanist)

William (Wilhem) Nylander (3 January 1822 – 29 March 1899)^[1] was a Finnish botanist and entomologist. Nylander was born in Oulu, and taught at the University of Helsinki before moving to Paris, France, where he lived until his death in 1899. His brother Fredrik Nylander was also a botanist.

William Nylander's parents were the merchant Anders Nylander and Margareta Magdalena Fahlander, who came from a family of priests. Already during his studies, Nylander became interested in natural science and traveled around Finland collecting insects. He graduated in 1839 and continued his studies at the University of Helsinki, where he received several academic degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1843, a Master of Arts degree in 1844, a Licentiate degree in 1845, and a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree in 1847.^[2]

His earliest works were of an entomological nature and were considered important contributions to the knowledge of the Nordic stinging insects, especially ants and wasps. He then focused exclusively on botany and devoted himself almost entirely to the systematics of lichens.^[3]

Most of Nylander's scientific development and activity took place in France. There he published Essai d'une nouvelle classification des lichens (1854–1855), a new system, which he maintained with minor changes, Herbarium lichenum parisiensium (1853–56), Prodromus lichenographiæ Galliæ et Algeriæ (1857, awarded a prize by the Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts in Bordeaux), Énumération générale des lichens avec l'indication sommaire de leur distribution géographique (1858) and his most extensive work: Synopsis methodica lichenum omnium hucusque cognitorum, I (1858–1860, continued in 1886, but unfinished).

In 1856 Nylander received an honorary prize and medal from the Linnaean Society of Bordeaux for his research on ants and lichens. In 1857, Nylander became the first holder of the professorship in botany in Helsinki, and on his initiative, the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica began publishing its Notiser in 1858, which were the society's own scientific publications, funded by the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. He was active in the society, including as vice-chairman and as curator of the society's entomological collections.^[3] All the Finnish plants in the university's collections were compiled (in collaboration with Thiodolf Saelan) in the Herbarium musei fennici (1859), excurrants were sent out, their collections were determined, and dissertations were published. One of Nylander's main works dates from this time: Lichenes Scandinaviæ (1861, in Notiser).

In 1863, Nylander requested and received his resignation from his professorship and settled in Paris, where he lived in extreme modesty and seclusion. He came into conflict with most of the people he came into contact with, both researchers and others, and he lived his last years in complete isolation. His large and valuable lichen herbarium and library went to the Botanical Museum of the University of Helsinki according to an agreement from 1878, when the Finnish state granted him an annual lifetime pension of 1,200 francs.^[3]

Nylander pioneered the technique of determining the taxonomy of lichens by the use of chemical reagents, such as potassium hydroxide, tinctures of iodine and calcium hypochlorite, still used by lichenologists as the K and C tests.^[4]

Nylander was the first to realise the effect of atmospheric pollution on the growth of lichens, an important discovery that paved the way for the use of lichens to detect pollution and determine the cleanness of air.

Nylander was one of the most prolific authors of new fungal and lichen species, having formally described about 3700 in his career.^[5] He edited the exsiccata series Herbarium lichenum Parisiensium, quod edidit William Nylander Med. Dr. and the exsiccata-like specimen series Lichenes Pyrenaeorum orientalium.^[6][7]

Nylander published articles in various scientific journals and in the publications of learned societies, mainly in France and Germany. He gained special importance for the investigation of the previously largely neglected exotic lichens. The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Prix Desmazières in 1869 for his work on the lichens of New Granada and New Caledonia and in consideration of his other activities.^[2][3]

The lichen species Umbilicaria nylanderiana was named after Nylander by Austrian botanist Alexander Zahlbruckner in 1927.^[8]

• "Nylander, William". Writers in Finland 1809–1916 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura och Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. 1993. p. 553. ISBN 951-717-714-3.