 After his death this herbarium did not remain in Germany but due to the efforts of George Engelmann, who, in 1857, shortly after the death of Bernhardi bought the complete herbarium for the amount of 600 dollars for Henry Shaw, founder of the Botanical Garden of Missouri in the U.S.A., forms the nucleus of the collection and the initial museum of this Botanical Garden (at the moment the "Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium" contains over 6.2 million specimens and the library over 120,000 volumes).Johann J. Bernhardi studied and described several species of orchids, including "Epipactis atrorubens".He described a species of rose without thorns, "Rosa × francofurtana", found in the garden of the house of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Weimar.