By Jones of Bexar                                      H.R. No. 916
         77R13543 MMS-D                           
                                 R E S O L U T I O N
 1-1           WHEREAS, May 21, 2001, marks the 200th anniversary of the
 1-2     birth of Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, known as the Father of Texas
 1-3     Botany; and
 1-4           WHEREAS, A native of Frankfurt am Maim, Germany, Lindheimer
 1-5     was a professor of literature and linguistics when his political
 1-6     reform activity discountenanced both his family and the government
 1-7     and led to his emigration in 1834; and
 1-8           WHEREAS, He first settled in Belleville, Illinois, among a
 1-9     group of German expatriates that included the botanist George
1-10     Engelmann; later in 1834 he moved to Mexico, where he joined
1-11     another German settlement on a hacienda in Vera Cruz and began
1-12     making plant and insect collections; and
1-13           WHEREAS, In 1836 Lindheimer came to Texas to aid in the fight
1-14     for independence, but the war ended before he saw any action; after
1-15     his discharge from the army in 1837 he engaged in farming and
1-16     continued his plant collecting; he spent two winters with Engelmann
1-17     in St. Louis, and in 1843 abandoned farming to work as a botanical
1-18     collector for Engelmann and Asa Gray, a botanist at Harvard
1-19     University; and
1-20           WHEREAS, From 1843 to 1852 Lindheimer devoted himself to
1-21     collecting specimens, exploring the region from Galveston to north
1-22     of Fredericksburg; he spent months at a time in the wilderness,
1-23     where he was allowed to wander unmolested by Indians who regarded
1-24     him as a medicine man; and
 2-1           WHEREAS, During this period Lindheimer moved to New Braunfels
 2-2     and built a cabin on the banks of the Comal River; in 1852 he
 2-3     assumed the editorship of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung, and the time
 2-4     he was able to spend on botany diminished considerably; a prominent
 2-5     figure in the community, he also served as superintendent of public
 2-6     instruction in Comal County and as the county's first justice of
 2-7     the peace; and
 2-8           WHEREAS, In 1872 Lindheimer left the newspaper, of which he
 2-9     had become publisher, and returned to botany; by the time of his
2-10     death in 1879, he had discovered several hundred new plant species
2-11     in Texas and is believed to have collected between 80,000 and
2-12     100,000 specimens; nearly 50 of the plants he discovered bear Latin
2-13     designations incorporating his name; and
2-14           WHEREAS, More than 20 institutions around the world house
2-15     specimens gathered by this indefatigable collector, among them the
2-16     British Museum, the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and the
2-17     Komarov Botanic Institute in St. Petersburg; and
2-18           WHEREAS, Ferdinand Lindheimer's outstanding contributions as
2-19     a pioneering naturalist and newspaperman have ensured his lasting
2-20     fame in the annals of the Lone Star State, and it is altogether
2-21     fitting that he be honored on the bicentennial of his birth; now,
2-22     therefore, be it
2-23           RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 77th Texas
2-24     Legislature hereby recognize May 21, 2001, as Ferdinand Jacob
2-25     Lindheimer Day in the State of Texas, in tribute to a life
2-26     distinguished by extraordinary achievement.