Pringsheim, Nathaniel (1823–1894)

German botanist who showed that lower cryptogams (spore-producing plants) and algae reproduce by sexual union, confirming what Wilhelm Hofmeister had previously shown to occur in higher cryptogams. Pringsheim also worked on fungi and unsuccessfully on chlorophyll. Like his contemporaries Ferdinand Cohn, Hugo von Mohl, and Hofmeister, he concentrated his study more upon the physiology and dynamics of cell development and life history than upon the traditional classification and collection of specimens.

Pringsheim was born in Wziesko, Silesia and educated first at home and then at the Oppeln Gymnasium and the Breslau Gymnasium. In 1843, he went to the University in Breslau to study medicine, and moved 1844 to Leipzig University and then to Berlin University, where he studied botany. He obtained his PhD 1848 and worked in Paris and London before becoming a lecturer in Berlin.

In 1864 he was made professor of botany at Jena University, where he masterminded the construction of a new botanical institute. In 1868, he resigned from the university and continued with his research in private laboratories.