 Having completed his military service and joined the Botanic Gardens at Dresden and Strasbourg to further his botanical and horticultural interests.He was appointed assistant to Prof. Carl Georg Oscar Drude, the plant geographer, in Dresden.As a result of his keen interest in exotic succulents, he was selected by Sir Thomas Hanbury to manage his acclimatisation garden, the Giardini Botanici Hanbury at La Mortola, near Ventimiglia on the Italian Riviera.