Franz Unger (1800–70)

Austrian botanist. Practised medicine in Stockerau and Kitzbühel, 1828–35. Professor of botany and zoology and director of the botanic garden, Johanneum, Graz, 1835–49. Professor of plant anatomy and physiology, University of Vienna, 1850–69. Considered one of the founders of palaeobotany; wrote in favour of species transmutation as early as 1852 and suggested hybridisation as a source of new species.