HEER, hār, Oswald, Swiss naturalist: b. Nieder-Utzwyl, Switzerland, 31 Aug. 1809; d. Lausanne, 27 Sept. 1883. He was educated at the University of Halle; entered the ministry in 1831; was privat docent in botany in the University of Zurich 1834-52, and from 1852 professor of botany at the University and at the Polytecnnicum, and from 1835-83 director of the botanical gardens at Zurich. His most important works were ‘Flora Tertiaria Helvetiæ’ (1854-56); ‘Tertiary Climates in Their Relation to Vegetation’ (1860); ‘Die Urwelt der Schweiz’ (1865); ‘Flora Fossilis Helvetiæ’ (1877); and ‘Flora Fossilis Arctica’ (1865-83).