Botanical history
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Botany. (Discuss) |
The history of botanical studies in the western world already started in ancient times. Greek philosophers sorted plants according to their growth form and habit. Monks and early herbalists adopted these works for centuries without any significant changes, and habitual classifications remained common until middle of the 18th century (Lawrence 1951). It was the Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius, who based his descriptions and illustrations on direct observations of plants and animals (Egmond 2005). Clusius realized that in Northern Europe different plants were found than originally described from the greater Mediterranean region. Dodoens (1554) adopted this idea when he studied the plants in the apothecary gardens of the Low Countries, and decided to sort these plants according to their medicinal uses (Christenhusz 2004). At that time there were no international rules for naming species (IBCN), and species names were usually written as a polynomial: a descriptive phrase consisting of several words. Confusion increased with the number of new species that were discovered, and therefore Bauhin (1623) listed 6000 established polynomials and their synonyms in his Pinax, which became an influential work for over a century.
During the 18th century systems of classification became deliberately artificial and served only for the purpose of identification. These classifications are comparable to diagnostic keys, where taxa are artificially grouped in pairs by few, easily recognisable characters. The sequence of the taxa in keys is often totally unrelated to their natural or phyletic groupings (Lawrence 1951). In the 18th century an increasing number of new plants had arrived in Europe, from newly discovered countries and the European colonies worldwide, and a larger amount of plants became available for study. Linnaeus (1745) originally classified his plants according to Tournefort’s system (1694), but many of the plants he studied could not be placed, so he decided to organize the plants according to the number and arrangement of sexual parts, his so-called sexual system (Linnaeus 1748). His Species Plantarum (Linnaeus 1753) was intended as a reference work to the plants of the world, and was in a way, a revision of Bauhin’s Pinax (1623). Although the Species Plantarum was not intended as such, Linnaeus first presented his binomial system in this work. He was not the first to employ binomials, because Bauhin (1623) and Rivinus (1690) already proposed that no plant name should consist of more than two words, but Linnaeus clarified many of the confusions created by the polynomials.
The increased knowledge on anatomy, morphology and life cycles, lead to the realization that there were more natural affinities between plants, than the sexual system of Linnaeus indicated. Adanson (1763), Jussieu (1789), and Candolle (1819) all proposed various alternative natural systems that were widely followed. The ideas of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution (Darwin 1859) required adaptations to the Candollean system, which started the studies on evolutionary relationships and phylogenetic classifications of plants. Pratchett et al. (2006) poetically defined evolution: It ‘is like a river flowing though an eroding landscape: at any given time there is a clear direction to the flow, but in the long run the passage of the river can change its course’.
The increased knowledge on molecular evolution, and the more widely applied DNA sequencing techniques, resulted in the redefinition of many families and genera, describing monophyletic groups in molecular phylogenies and cladograms. Now various traditional classifications based on morphology are being revised, altered and improved, based on molecular phylogenies. Slowly the tree of life is further unravelled, making us better understand the evolutionary relationships between the species populating our planet.
References
Adanson, M. 1763. Familles des plantes. Chez Vincent, Paris, France.
Bauhin, C. 1623. Pinax theatri botanici, sive index in Theophrasti, Dioscoridis, Plinii, et botanicorum qui a secolo scripserunt opera plantarum circiter sex millum ab ipsis exhibitarum nomina cum earundum synonymiis et differentiis methodice secundum earum et genera et species proponens. Sumptibus et typis Ludovici Regis, Basel, Switzerland.
Candolle, A. P. de 1813. Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, ou exposition des principes de la classification naturelle et de l’art de décrire et d’étudier des végétaux. Déterville, Paris, France.
Christenhusz, M. J. M. 2004. The hortus siccus (1566) of Petrus Cadé: a description of the oldest known collection of dried plants made in the Low Countries. Archives of Natural History 31 (1): 30-43.
Darwin, C. 1859. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. John Murray, London, U.K.
Dodoens, R. (R. Dodonaeus) 1554. Crüijdeboeck, in den welcken die gheheele historie, dat es t gheslacht, t fatsoen, naem, natuere, cracht ende werckinge, van de den Cruyden, niet alleen hier te lande wassende, maer oock van den anderen vremden in de medecijnen oorboorlijck, met grooter neersticheyt begrepen ende verclaert es, met der selver Cruyden natuerlick naar dat leven conterfeytsel daer by ghestelt . Jan vander Loe, Antwerpen, Belgium. (Facsimile: 1971, with an introduction by D. A. Wittop Koning. De Forel, Nieuwendijk, Netherlands).
Egmond, F. 2005. Clusius, Cluyt, Saint Omer, the origins of the sixteenth-century botanical and zoological watercolours in Libri Picturati A 16-30. Nuncius 20 (1): 11-67.
Jussieu, A. L. de 1789. Genera Plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita, juxta methodum in horto regio Parisiensi exaratam. Herissant, Paris, France.
Lawrence, G. H. M. 1951. Taxonomy of Vascular Plants. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York.
Linnaeus, C. (C. von Linné) 1745. Hortus Upsaliensis, quem cum consensu ampliss. Facult. medicae, etc., Uppsala, Sweden.
Linnaeus, C. (C. von Linné) 1748. Hortus Upsaliensis, exhibens plantas exoticas, horto upsaliensis academiae a sese illetas, ab anno 1742, in annuum 1748, additi differentiis synonymis habitionibus, hospitiis, rariorumque descriptionibus, in gratiam studiosae juventutis. Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm, Sweden.
Linnaeus, C. (C. von Linné) 1753. Species Plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas. Tomus II. Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm, Sweden.
Linnaeus, C. (C. von Linné) 1763. Species Plantarum, editio secunda, tomus II: 1539. Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm, Sweden.
Pratchett, T., Stewart, I., Cohen, J. 2006. The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch. Ebury Press, London, U.K.
Rivinus, A. Q. (A. Bachmann) 1690. Introductio generalis in rem herbariam. Christoph Günther, Leipzig, Germany.
Tournefort, J. P. de 1694. Éléments de botanique, ou méthode de reconnaître des plantes, 3 volumes. Typographia Regia, Paris, France.
