Fredrik Emil Volmar (Fredrik) Elfving (1854–1942)

Finnish botanist and plant physiologist. Studied medicine at Helsinki, 1874–7; botany at Jena, 1878; Würzburg, 1879. PhD in botany, Helsinki, 1879; docent, 1881. Studied at Straßburg, 1881; at Copenhagen, Utrecht, and Paris, 1886–7. Professor of botany and director of the Botanical Institute, Helsinki, 1889–1926. While at Würzburg, demonstrated transverse geotropism of rhizomes, the subject of his doctoral dissertation.