Albrecht Wilhelm Roth

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757 to 1834) was a German medical doctor and botanist, born in Dötlingen. He studied medicine at the universities of Halle and Erlangen, where he received his doctorate in 1778, then practised medicine in Dötlingen and shortly afterwards moved to Bremen-Vegesack. Between 1785 and 1787 he issued an exsiccata titled Herbarium vivum plantarum officinalium, with instructions for collecting plants for medical use. His botanical writings, notably Tentamen florae germanicae, a treatise on German flora, and Novae plantarum species praesertim Indiae orientalis, a book on East Indian plants based largely on specimens collected by the Moravian missionary Benjamin Heyne, came to the attention of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who recommended him for a position at the botanical institute of the University of Jena. The plant genus Rothia, in the family Fabaceae, is named after him.