Christen Smith
| Christen Smith | |
|---|---|
Christen Smith portrait, ca 1810
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| Born | 17 October 1785 Skoger, Norway |
| Died |
22 September 1816 (aged 30) Tall Trees, at the Congo River |
| Citizenship | Norwegian |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Fields | Botany, geology |
| Institutions | Natural History Museum, Oslo |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | C.Sm. |
Christen Smith (17 October 1785 – 22 September 1816) was an early 19th-century Norwegian physician, economist and naturalist, particularly botanist. He died, only 30 years old during a dramatic expedition to the Congo River in 1816, leaving a wealth of botanical material.
Smith was born at Skoger in Drammen, Norway. He studied medicine and botany at the University of Copenhagen under Professor Martin Vahl. Together with Jens Wilken Hornemann, he traveled through large parts of Norway and carried out botanical investigations, collecting plants to be included in the plate work Flora Danica. Joakim Frederik Schouw and Morten Wormskjold were in the company for part of the trip. The party climbed several mountain tops in Jotunheimen, for some of which it was the first recorded ascent, e.g. Bitihorn 1811 and Hårteigen 1812.
In 1808, Smith graduated and started to practice medicine in Norway. In 1814, he was appointed professor of national economy and botany at the newly founded Royal Frederick University in Christiania (now Oslo). However, he never took up the position as he embarked upon travels abroad to establish contacts and keep abreast of the development of botanical gardens in Europe. His first journey took him to Scotland and from there to London, where he met the Prussian geologist Leopold von Buch. Buch planned to visit the volcanic Canary Islands and Madeira, and Smith eagerly seized the opportunity to participate in an expedition with the experienced scientist. In 1815, the two embarked on the trip. They returned to Portsmouth on December 8, the same year, Smith bringing 600 species of plants, of which about 50 were new to science. The best known of Smith's new species is probably Pinus canariensis, the Canary Island Pine.
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