Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus

Brotherus was born in Skarpans in Sund, Åland while Finland was under Russian rule. He had 13 brothers and sisters of whom six died young.{{Cite journal|last=Koponen|first=Timo|date=2005-09-01|title=INVITED REVIEW: Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus (1849–1929) and Musci in Engler & Prantl's Die Natürlichen Planzenfamilien|journal=The Bryologist|volume=108|issue=3|pages=345–362|doi=10.1639/0007-2745(2005)108[0345:vfbami]2.0.co;2|issn=0007-2745}}

He took his Candidate of Philosophy degree in 1870 at Imperial Alexander University (later University of Helsinki) and began medical studies but gave them up after getting blood poisoning and became a teacher. He married Aline Mathilde Sandman (born 1853{{Cite journal|title=[Tombstones of Famous Bryologists]|journal=The Bryologist|volume=100|issue=1|pages=143|doi=10.1639/0007-2745(1997)100[143:]2.0.co;2|year=1997}}), daughter of Jonas Sandman, a Justice in the Court of Appeal, in 1879 at the age of thirty, and had four children. She died in 1894. He did not remarry.Family Database, {{cite web|url=http://home.brotherus.net/family/person.php?PersonID%3DP277 |title=Viktor Ferdinand () Brotherus (O.s. ) |access-date=April 1, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723032741/http://home.brotherus.net/family/person.php?PersonID=P277 |archive-date=July 23, 2011 }}

He taught natural history and mathematics at the Swedish girls' school in Vaasa City from 1878 to 1917, carrying on his career as a botanist in parallel. At his funeral, his grand-nephew describes:

"Foreign guests arrived to his funeral, he was praised in the funeral orations, last respects were read from distant lands. The staff of the school was astonished. They had no idea that he was also something else but their dear old junior lecturer [original in Finnish]."Koponen 2005 p.348 quoting Heikki Brotherus

His earliest major work was on the moss flora of the Kola Peninsula (Brotherus and T. Saelan. 1890. Musci Lapponiae Kolaensis. Acta Societas pro Flora et Flora Fennica 6: 1-100.) His other major European work was Die Laubmoose Fennoskandias (1923). He also studied, through collections sent to him by botanists abroad, the mosses of Turkmenistan, Africa, Australia, Brazil, and New Guinea, among others, and was known as an authority on extra-European mosses. His work on the Musci of Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien covered Archidiales, Andreaeales, and Bryales, and continued to the second edition.{{Cite journal|last=Stafleu|first=Frans A.|date=1972|title=The Volumes on Cryptogams of "Engler und Prantl"|jstor=1219117|journal=Taxon|volume=21|issue=4|pages=501–511|doi=10.2307/1219117}}

By invitation of Heinrich von Handel-Mazzetti, he authored the section on Chinese mosses in the Symbolae Sinicae. His collaborations and correspondence with other bryologists of the day were extensive. In particular, he was well acquainted with Max Fleischer, and used Fleischer's new 'natural' system of moss classification, which was outlined in the latter's Die Musci der Flora von Buitenzorg, in his own systematic description of the mosses in Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien. Brotherus's unique achievement was his synthesis of moss taxonomy for the world-wide distribution, and his mastery of the identification and classification of the estimated 20 000 species of mosses then known to him.

Brotherus's personal herbarium (comprising 120 000 moss specimens), in particular the extra-European collections, was purchased by the University of Helsinki herbarium (H) and is maintained as a separate collection (H-BR).Finnish Museum of Natural History http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/botany/cryptogams/index.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615134232/http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/botany/cryptogams/index.htm |date=2008-06-15 }}

He published several exsiccatae, among others the series Bryotheca Fennica and Musci Turkestanici.{{Cite web |title=Bryotheca Fennica, edidit V. F. Brotherus: IndExs ExsiccataID=397403008 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae|publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=397403008 |access-date=27 November 2024}}{{Cite web |title=Musci Turkestanici: IndExs ExsiccataID=974112768 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae|publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=974112768 |access-date=27 November 2024}}Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The specimens are deposited in major herbaria around the world (e.g. B, BM, FH, K, L, M, P).{{Cite journal|last=Sayre|first=Geneva|date=1977|title=Authors of Names of Bryophytes and the Present Location of Their Herbaria|jstor=3242025|journal=The Bryologist|volume=80|issue=3|pages=502–521|doi=10.2307/3242025}}Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The standard botanical abbreviation of his name is Broth. The journal Bryobrothera, published by the Finnish Bryological Society, is named in his honor. Numerous genera and species of mosses, e.g. Brothera, Brotherella, Brotherobryum, are named for him. Members of his family (see Brotherus) are still resident in Finland today.

{{botanist|Broth.|Brotherus, Viktor Ferdinand}}

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• {{cite journal|jstor=3237740|title=Obituary Note|date=1 January 1929|journal=The Bryologist|volume=32|issue=1|pages=6|doi=10.1639/0007-2745(1929)32[6:on]2.0.co;2}}
• Brotherus, Robert. Family Database - Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus. https://web.archive.org/web/20110723032741/http://home.brotherus.net/family/person.php?PersonID=P277
• Finnish Museum of Natural History, Cryptogams Division. https://web.archive.org/web/20080615134232/http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/botany/cryptogams/index.htm

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Category:Bryologists

Category:Finnish taxonomists

Category:1849 births

Category:1929 deaths

Category:People from Sund, Åland

Category:People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)

Category:Swedish-speaking Finns

Category:19th-century Finnish botanists

Category:20th-century Finnish botanists