Google's german corpus turns up a few hits from 1850s and 1860s but without preview. Later hits are bibliographical entries for american naturalist books, such as Check List of the Ferns of North America North of Mexico (1875); I get the impression aficionados were supposed to "check off" each species until they'd "seen them all" but am not really sure.

NB. Google frequently mis-years books (easily double-checked against title page or anachronistic references); I should really check on Gallica or whatever the german equivalent may be...

similar usage from 1862: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54489650/f73.image.r=...