His mother died at his birth and he was of delicate constitution all his life. His father was sufficiently well off to send him to winter in the warmer climate of Italy.
He attended horticultural college in Potsdam and later worked at the municipal gardens in Berlin. In 1874 he began work as a gardener in the nursery of Louis van Houtte in Ghent. Around 1880, he visited Samoa, Tonga, the Marshall and Caroline Islands. From his travels in the South Seas, he issued two papers on flora native to the islands. Ferns collected in the islands were shipped to the University of Leipzig, and the rest of the specimens were given to botanist Ferdinand von Mueller.[1][2]