Genus Rohria

For Julius Philip Benjamin von Röhr (1737–1793), Prussian-born botanist, plant collector, medical doctor and watercolour painter. He took refuge in Denmark during the Seven Years’ War (1756), and the following year was appointed surveyor in the Danish West Indies, with instruction to make collections in natural history. He sent many plants to Europe from South America and the West Indies. In 1784, he made an intensive study of cotton botany and agriculture under commission for King Christian VII. He published a treatise on this, which was also translated into French. During his career, he received the title Royal Naturalist. In the 1790s, Denmark was considering abolishing the slave trade. Von Röhr sailed from New York to Guinea with the idea of setting up a plantation colony, staffed by (free) blacks in the vicinity of the old Danish slaving forts, but died shortly after landing as a result of a malignant fever.