NEES VON ESENBECK, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED (1776-1858), botanist and entomologist, was born at Erbach on February 14, 1776, and was educated at Darmstadt and at Jena, where he took the degree of M.D. He spent some time in medical practice in Frankfort-onthe-Main, but in 1818 was appointed professor of botany in Erlangen. Next year he became professor of natural history in Bonn, and in 1831 he was appointed to the chair of botany in the university of Breslau. He enjoyed a high reputation as a lecturer, but had a strong leaning to the transcendental philosophy of nature so much in vogue in Germany in the earlier part of this century. In 1848 he was elected a member of the German parliament, and became a leader of the party opposed to the Government, to which he made himself so obnoxious that in 1851 he was deprived of his professorship, and in consequence the latter years of his life were spent in great poverty. He died in 1858.

For about forty years he edited the Nova deta of the " Acad. Leopold.-Carolina," and in this important series of scientific memoirs several of his own papers were published. His earliest memoirs deal with the ichneumons, and for some years he continued to write on these insects. He published a Monographie der Ieltneumone in 2 vols., in 1828 ; and Hymenopterorum Iehneumonibus affinium Monographix, in 2 vols., in 1834. Nees von Esenbeek was a prolific writer in various departments of botany, and published the following separate works: - .Die A igen des siissen lVassers nach aren Entwiehelungsstufen dctrgestellt, 1814 ; Das System der Pilze and Sehweimme, 1816; Naturgeschiate der europetisch,en Lebermoose, in 4 vols., 1833-38 ; "Agrostologia Brasiliensis, in the Flora Brasiliensis ; and a Systema Laurinearunz, 1836. Besides these he wrote numerous monographs in the series above mentioned, also in Flora, in Linnwt, and in other scientific German magazines, either alone or along with other well-known botanists. His best known works are those that deal with the Fungi, the Hepatiew, and the Glumiferx in all which groups he made valuable additions to knowledge, which have exerted much influence on later investigations.

His brother Theodore (1787-1837), inspector of the botanic gardens at Leyden, and afterwards professor of pharmacy at Bonn, also wrote numerous papers on botanical subjects, dealing more particularly with medicinal plants and their products.