Species Merremia guerichii

For Basius Merrem (1761–1824), German naturalist and botanist, mathematician and professor of political economy at Marburg. He studied at the University of Göttingen and developed an interest in zoology, particularly ornithology. Best known for his work Tentamen Systematis Naturalis Avium, published in Berlin in 1816, dealing with bird classification, in which he proposed the division of birds into ratites (running birds, with a flat sternum) and carinatus (flying birds, with a keeled sternum). He was a prolific author of many books in German, Latin and English on a wide range of subjects mainly related to birds, amphibians, Linnaeus’s global classification system but also about economic issues such as castles and the household economy.