Ernst Bernard Heyne was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 botanist and horticulturist. He was born on September 15, 1825, at Meissen

Meissen

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the son of Carl August Heyne, M.D., and his wife Marianne, née Tierof.

Early life

He graduated from the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 with a diploma in botany. He was an accomplished linguist and mathematician. He obtained a post in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Dresden

Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Dresden

The Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Dresden , also known as the Botanischer Garten Dresden or Dresden Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden maintained by the Dresden University of Technology. It is located in the north-west section of the Großer Garten at Stübelallee 2, Dresden,...

.

Career in Australia

In 1854 Heyne was employed at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens as chief plantsman. When Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 became director, Heyne was appointed his secretary and went with him on several Victorian expeditions. He helped to classify much of the botanical material collected by von Mueller in the 1850s, and is commemorated by Aster heynei F.Muell. =Olearia xerophila, and Cyperus heynei Boeckel and also by Impatiens scapiflora Heyne & Wall. and Impatiens tenella Heyne ex Hook.f.. Heyne established a nursery at Hackney

London Borough of Hackney

The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

, near Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, and opened a shop for seeds and plants.

Publications

He contributed regularly to the South Australian Register and the Observer in the 1870s, chiefly on the cultivation of forest trees, forage plants and pasture grasses. In 1871 he published The Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Garden, which was enlarged as The Amateur Gardener in 1881 and ran to four editions. His Rueckblick in German had appeared in the 1850s.

Later life

On December 3, 1870, he married Wilhelmina Laura. They had two sons and three daughters. Heyne continued to work until he became ill with asthma and nearly blind. He died on 16 October 1881 at his home in Norwood.
Though overshadowed by von Mueller, his botanical and horticultural work greatly contributed to the early development of two colonies.