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PBIO 250 Lecture Notes

James L. Reveal

Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland

History of Systematic Botany

Folk taxonomies
arrangment of objects into general, but hierarchierical categories
systems differ widely by culture and requirements
significant in agriculture

1. Berlin, B. 1973. Folk systematics in relation to biological classification and nomenclature. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 4: 259-271.
   
2. --. 1992. Ethnobiological classification: Principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional science. Princeton.

The Ancients

1. Greene, E. L. 1983. Landmarks of Botanical History, 2 vols. (edited by F. N. Egerton). Stanford.
   
2. Henrey, B. 1975. British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. 3 vols. London.
   
3. Hobbs, C. 1996a. An outline of the history of herbalism.
   
4. --. 1996b. Botanical taxonomy - a historical summary.
   
5. Reed, H.S. 1942. A short history of the plant sciences. Waltham.
   
6. Morton, A.G. 1981. History of botanical science: An account of the development of botany from ancient times to the present day. London.

agriculture began some 9000 years ago in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia
Assyrian herbal of the 7th century B.C. gives a list of some 700 medicinal and semi-medicinal plants arranged according to use and application - see an early folio sheet of an ancient text
Ebers medical papyrus from Egypt is a systematic arrangement of medicinal plants from the 1500 B.C.
classification based on habit
Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.)
"Father of botany"
trees, shrubs, undershrubs and herbs
annual, biennial and perennial
indeterminate and determinate inflorescences
ovary position
polypetalous and gamopetalous corollas
Enquiry into plants
The causes of plants - see page of a mid fifteenth century translation
Caius Plinius Secundus (23-79 A.D.)
"Pliny the Elder"
Naturalis historia - see a page from an late eighth century manuscript translation
Pedanios Dioscorides (first century A.D.)
De materia medica
printed in 1516 with numerous editions
Emperor Shen [or Chi'en] Nung (2800 B.C.)
"Father of Agriculture and Medicine" in China
365 plants described in manuscript named Pen Tsao
Tang Shen-wei, a physician from Szchewan published Cheng lei pen ts'ao in 31 books using movable type in 1108 (movable type "invented" in Europe in the 1440s)
reprinted in Japan in 1625
Chou Wang Hsiao
Jiu huang beng chao or Relieve famine herbal (1406)
Li Shi Chen
Pen ts'ao kang mu (1590)
Islamic botanists and scholars
All-Asma'i of Basra (740-828) wrote books on plants, trees and vines
Abu Mansur Muwaffak Bin Ali Harawi wrote a tenth century herbal following Dioscorides and various Indian writers
Ibn Sina (980-1037), known as Avicenna, wrote the Canon of Medicine, an encyclopedic work on plants; translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century (see a manuscript page from this book) and used widely in Europe
Indian author Parasara wrote Vrikshauyrveda (ca 50 BC), a work on general botany
Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) - see this discussion about Albert and Bacon, author of numerous works on biology
monocotyledons and dicotyledons
Medieval time was not noted for science in the West

Herbalists and herbals - see images and title pages from some herbals

1. Bellamy, D. & A. Pfister. 1992. World Medicine. Plants, Patients and People. Oxford.
   
2. Blunt, W. & S. Raphael. 1979. The illustrated herbal. London.
   
3. Griggs, B. 1987. Green Pharmacy. A History of Herbal Medicine. Ed. 2. London.
   
4. Reveal, J.L. 1996. "What's in a name: Identifying plants in pre-Linnaean botanical literature," pp. 57-90. In: B. Holland (ed.), Evaluating ancient and medieval medicines. Harword Academic Publishers, Paris.

doctrine of signatures
Herbarius: first printed herbal (1484); treated 150 German plants
Otto Brunfels (1464-1534)
Herbarum Vivae Eicones (1530)
Jerome Bock [or Boch or Tragus] (1489-1554)
Neu Kreuter Buck (1539); see illustration at the right from Kreutterbuch (1572) in the Doris and Marc Patten Collection at Arizona State University
Valerius Cordus (1515-1544)
Historia plantarum (1561-1563)
Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) - author of numerous works in biology
Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566)
De historia stirpium (1542)
William Turner (1510-1568)
A new herball (1551, 1562, 1568)
John Gerard (1542-1612)
The herball (1597)
Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) or Charles de L'Ecluse
Histoire des plantes (1557)
Mathias de l'Obel [or Lobel] (1538-1616)
Plantarum seu stirpium historia (1576)
Pierandrea Mattiolia (1500-1577)
Commentarii (1554) - see the 1571 Commentartiis
Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)
The English Physitian (1650)
many herbals translated and sold by printers, e.g., Lyte's copy of Rembert Dodoens' herbal A niewe herball (1578)
John Parkinson (1567-1650)
last herbalist; his Theatrum botanicum accounted for some 4000 species of plants

Major herbals

1. Bock, H. 1539. New kreüter buch. Strassburg.
   
2. --. 1546. Kreüter buch. Strassburg.
   
3. Brunfels, O. 1530. Herbarum vivae eicones. Strassburg.
   
4. --. 1531. Novi herbarii tomus II. Strassburg.
   
5. --. 1536. Tomus herbarii othonis Brunfelsii III. Strassburg.
   
6. --. 1543. In Dioscoridis historiam herbarum certissima adaptatio. Strassburg.
   
7. --. 1532. Contrafayt kreüterbuch. Strassburg.
   
8. --. 1534. Kreüterbuch contrafayt vollkummen. Strassburg.
   
9. Clusius, C. 1557. Histoire des plantes. Antwerp.
   
10. Cordus, V. 1561. Annotationes in pedacii Dioscoridis anazarbei de materia medica. Strassburg.
    
11. Culpeper, N. 1649. A physicall directory. London.
    
12. --. 1653. Pharmacopoeia londonensis: or the London dispensatory. London.
    
13. --. 1652. The English physitian; or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. London.
    
14. Dodoens, R. 1552. Crüijdeboeck. Antwerp.
    
15. --. 1574. Purgantium. Antwerp.
    
16. Fuchs, L. 1542. De historia stirpium. Basel.
    
17. --. 1543. New kreüterbuch. Basel.
    
18. Gerard, J. 1597. The herball. London.
    
19. Lobel, M. 1571. Stirpium adversaria nova. London.
    
20. --. 1576 Plantarum seu stirpium historia. Antwerp.
    
21. --. 1581. Kruydtboeck. Antwerp.
    
22. Lyte, H. 1578. A nievve herball. London.
    
23. Mattioli, P. 1544. Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri. Venice.
    
24. --. 1554. Commentarii, in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei. Venice.
    
25. --. 1571. Compendium de plantis omnibus. Venice.
    
26. Parkinson, J. 1640. Theatrum botanicum. London.
    
27. Turner, W. 1538. Libellus de re herbaria novus. London.
    
28. --. 1548. The names of herbes. London.
    
29. --. 1551. A new herball. London.
    
30. --. 1562. The seconde parte of Vuilliam Turners herball. Cologne.
    
31. --. 1568. The first and seconde partes of the herbal of William Turner with the third parte lately gathered. Cologne.

Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603)
Cesalpino, A. 1583. De plantis. Florence.
Teleology
Luca Ghini (1490-1556)
herbarium (pl. herbaria)
established early botanical garden in 1544 at Pisa
Gaspard Bauhin (1560-1624)
Jean Bauhin (1541-1613)
Pinax - see title page of 1671 edition at right from Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

1. Bauhin, C. 1596. Phytopinax. Basil.
   
2. --. 1620. Prodromos theatri botanici. Frankfurt am Main.
   
3. --. 1623. Pinax Theatri botanici. Basil.
4. Bauhin, J. 1650-1651. Historia plantarum. Yverdon.

Botanical exploration in the New World

1. Blunt, W. 1971. The compleat naturalist: A life of Linnaeus. New York.
   
2. Coats, A.M. 1970. The plant hunters. New York.
   
3. Isley, D. 1994. One hundred and one botanists. Ames, Iowa.
   
4. Kastner, J. 1977. A species of eternity. New York.
   
5. Keeney, E.B. 1992. The botanizers: Amateur scientists in nineteenth century America. Chapel Hill.
   
6. Lemmon, K. 1968. The golden age of plant hunters. London.
   
7. McKelvey, S.D. 1955. Botanical exploration of the trans-Mississippi west, 1790-1850. Jamaica Plains.
   
8. Reveal, J.L. 1992. Gentle conquest. The botanical discovery of North America with illustrations from the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.
   
9. --. 1996. America's botanical beauty. Golden, CO.
   
10. -- & J.S. Pringle. Taxonomic botany and floristics. Fl. N. Amer. 1: 157-192.
    
11. Spongberg, S.A. 1990. A reunion of trees. Cambridge, MA.
    
12. Stearns, R.P. 1970. Science in the British colonies of America. Urbana.
    
13. Stevens, P.F. 1994. The development of biological systematics: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, nature and the natural system. New York.

left - Fragaria virginiana - an early illustration of strawberry from John Josselyn's 1672 New-England's rarieties discovered

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés (1478-1557)
La historia general de las Indias (1535)
Natural history of the West Indies (1555)
Nicolas Bautista Monardes (1493-1588)
first work on New World medicinal plants (in 1565) Joyfull newes of the newe founde worlde (1574), translated by John Frampton
José d'Acosta (1539-1600)
História natural y moral de las Indias (1590)
Native Americans - Badianus Manuscript (1552, 1940)
Francisco Hernandez (1517-1587)
early Mexican-based natural history; written around 1577 delayed being published until 1651

1. d'Acosta, J. 1590. História natural y moral de las Indias. Seville.
   
2. de la Cruz, M. 1964. Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis. Mexico City.
   
3. Emmart, E.W. 1940. Badianus manuscript: An Aztec herbal of 1552. Baltimore.
   
4. Frampton, J. 1577. Joyfull news of the newe founde worlde. London.

Thomas Hariot (1560-1621)
A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia
Jacques-Philippe Cornut (1606?-1651)
John Ray (1627-1705) - "father of English botany"
Methodus plantarum (1703)
Historia plantarum supplementum (1704)
Leonard Plukenet (1642-1706)
Hugh Jones (1672-1702)
David Kreig (d 1710)
William Vernon (d ca 1715)
Reveal, J. L., G. F. Frick, C. R. Broome & M. L. Brown. 1987. Botanical explorations and discoveries in colonial Maryland. Huntia 7: 1-283.
See representative folio pages with collections of Maryland plants gathered in the 1690s