Prior to 1844, he worked as a pharmacist in Fiume, afterwards moving to Constantinople, where he taught classes in botany at the Êcole Impériale de Médicine de Galata Serai and served as director of its botanical garden. He collected plants in the Balkans, on islands within the Gulf of Quarnero, in Asia Minor and in Mesopotamia. On a journey to Mount Olympus, he reportedly discovered gold.