Franz Stephani
Franz Stephani (1842–1927) was a German bryologist specializing in liverworts. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Steph. when citing a botanical name.
Stephani was born in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, in 1842. He attended and graduated from the Königliches Gymnasium, whereupon he began training to be a businessman in the wool-spinning industry. He worked both in a toy shop, and in a publishing house. In 1869, he married Marie Kell, daughter of the novelist Julius Kell and had two children. By the age of 34, Stephani began publishing papers on the subject of liverworts. He never attended university, and it is not known how his interest in bryology was sparked.
Stephani is most remembered for his Species Hepaticarum, a six-volume attempt to catalog all of the world's species of liverworts and hornworts. In 1894 Stephani met with M. W. Barbey-Boissier, son-in-law of Edmond Boissier and owner of the Barbey-Boissier Herbarium in Geneva. In 1897 the Herbarium concluded an agreement with Stephani, by which they would publish Species Hepaticarum. Stephani in turn bequeathed them his herbarium, drawings, library, notes and scientific correspondence. The first editions of the work appeared in 1898, in the Bulletin de l'Herbier Boissier, and the final volume 27 years later, in 1925.