Botany: The History of a Science

The idea came from my friend, Elena... Thanx Elena :)

The very first ancient documents about plants (Babylonian souces, the Old Testament, HOMER's works) that came down on us regarded plants mainly under the aspects of utility and medicinal use. The interest of the old Greek philosophers focused more on the comparison of animal and man on one hand and plants on the other. EMPEDOCLES FROM AGRIENT, for example, dwelt on the question whether plants have a soul while ARISTOTLE ranks them in the middle between the inanimate and the animate. THEOPHRASTUS wrote two works of a general nature on plants: The Natural History of Plants and About the Reasons of Vegetable Growth . Both had a formative influence on the botanical research of following scientists. An estimated 1300-1400 different plant species were known under Roman reign.

The interest of the Romans concentrated more on practical problems: PLINY THE OLDER reviewed plants mainly under aspects of utility while the work of DIOSKORIDE on pharmacology gained him the reputation as the superior authority on this subject for more than sixteen centuries to come. He describes more than 500 different plant species. No further knowledge was gained during the Middle Ages though Europe was confronted with the works and thoughts of antiquity through the Arab reign. The first original observations were made by HILDEGARD von BINGEN, but it is ALBERT THE GREAT who is regarded as the rediscoverer of scientific botany. His work had a large influence on Western scientific literature. New knowledge was also gained by the travellers and discoverers of the time, MARCO POLO, for example, and the crusades. The ideas of antiquity became popular again during the Renaissance, while the 17th and 18th century was the time of the beginning specialization. The attempt to find a natural system for the great variety of plant species led to decisive contributions to botany. At about the same time another field of modern biology, cell biology, took its beginning with the invention of the microscope. Since the 16th century physiology became a botanical topic, too.

Botany is the science of plants. What does this mean? Is science what is worked on in laboratories or what is found out in field studies or is it something you can find in big libraries? All these are certainly aspects of science, but they do not present the whole picture. Science might be defined as an intellectual analysis of a given subject. It is the attempt to conclude from single observations to a general validity, to extrapolate from known to unknown and to have a look at different arguments. Plant science has a long history. It has -just like all human cultural science- no straight course, nor a declared aim: phases of profound gain of knowledge alternate with periods of ignorance. Especially during the last centuries, opinions have often been expressed with utter harshness, with polemics or even with personal defamation of people having different views, peaking maybe in G.GALILEI´s inquisition. 

By somehow, this subject is related to another one... Ancient Egyptian Papyrus...

The Egyptians produced paper out of the pith of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), but papyrus was not only used for the production of paper. It was needed for the wreathes of kings and gods, too. Beside this, it served as a model for the columns of the temples in Upper Egypt and was often seen to decorate their reliefs.

The Egyptians knew initially only spring wheat; winter wheat being cultivated from spring wheat only much later. They knew also olive trees, grapevines and fig trees, the latter giving tasty fruit, but only bad building timber.

Plants were not only looked at from the point of view of utility. Special powers were attributed to them and some were even considered holy. Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), for example, was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, to the Hindus and to other people of the east. They did nevertheless eat the lotus fruits: these were forbidden only to Egyptian priests. 

In many ancient tales, plants were seen as symbols of gentle and delicate feelings and in all cultures the beauty and transitory nature of flowers was noticed and attributed emotional values. Only few depictions of plants by the Greeks or the Romans were handed down on us, but plants were very often subjects of their mythology. The creation of plants was connected to the myths of gods. The Spartan HYACINTHOS, for example, was loved by APPOLON and, when accidentally killed by the god, was turned into a flower with the same name. This happened to NARCISSOS, too, who committed suicide after falling in love with his own reflection. The Heliads, daughters of the sun, were transformed into electron (amber)-excreting poplars.  

And not just this... in the Arab world, Botany had a special place...

The influence of the Arabs on the culture of the Occident had but little stimulating effects on botany, though they confronted Europe with the literature of antiquity. One of their most important inventions, destillation, was introduced to botanical research only centuries later. Among the opinions that prevailed in Arab culture was the following (cited from F. DIETERIER: Die Naturanschauung und Naturphilosophie der Araber im 10. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1861):

"On the lowest level is the ruin«s green (i.e. lichens and moss) that is merely dust pressed together. On the highest level is the palm tree. It is an animal plant, that does not resemble other plants in some actions and conditions, although its body stays plant-like. With the palm tree the acting (male) force is separated from the suffering (female) force. With other plants these forces are not detached."

The observation that the female and the male genders of the palm are separated goes back to antiquity. Both ARISTOTLE and THEOPHRASTUS were aware of this fact, but they were not able to draw any conclusions or to examine whether this feature could be found with other plants, too.

The beginning of science in the West was arduous and dragged on for centuries. Plants were for the first time catalogued in the capitularies of CHARLEMAGNE (771 - 814). These records are regulations concerning the instruction of the youth, the improvement of agriculture and the lay-out of gardens. English Benedictines made an inventory of the plants grown in imperial gardens of Lower Palatine. The inventories contain 6-7 different cereals, 17-18 varieties of fruits, 38 varieties of vegetables and herbs, 35-37 different medicinal plants and 5 plant species used for dyeing and the production of fabrics. Although the influence of the Arab culture as represented by the Arabs ruling in Spain till the beginning of the 14th century on Western science was but small that on the attitude of the minds was considerably larger. Monks, priests and scholars went on pilgrimages to Spain to visit its large libraries (that of Cordoba had since 755 660,000 volumes) and to study the works of antiquity there. Many works were translated into Latin. In the course of this - and in that of the numerous copies made - a lot of mistakes and distortions slipped in. Confusion was especially generated by the way plants' names were used. The knowledge that the flora of Central Europe is of a fundamentally different nature than that of the Mediterranean common to us today was missing. It was expected, and for many centuries to come, that the plants reviewed by PLINY and, after works of ARISTOTLE and THEOPHRASTUS became known, the plants reviewed by them, too, had also to exist in Central Europe. It was further assumed that the lists made in antiquity of plants and the descriptions given of them were complete. First signs of original observations go back to the abbess HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (1099 - 1179). She gave descriptions of more than 300 different plants and put German names on them, though she was writing, as was usual, in Latin. Some of these names have been used in the local dialect (Rhineland) up until the last century. 

More knowledge was gathered by the numerous travellers. The crusades made the cause. In the second half of the 13th century, the Venetian MARCO POLO travelled through large parts of Central Asia and China and thus increased the knowledge of plants, countries, people and animals: bamboo, clove, ginger, cotton, sugar cane, indigo, rhubarb, camphor, pepper and nutmeg got to Venice. During the 14th century, monks and merchands travelled often to the Orient, but they gained only little knowledge. Partly because they had no exact powers of observation and lacked the necessary previous knowledge, partly because the travels were often badly prepared.  

Scientific literature was far more and far easier spread after the invention of letterpress by J. GUTENBERG (Mainz, 1446). The number of reviewed plant species increased rapidly:

1532: BRUNFELS, 800 species
1551: LONICER, 879 species
1552: BOCK, 240 species
1552: DODONAEUS, 884 species
1586: DALECHAMP, more than 3,000 species
1623: BAUHIN, over 6,000 species 

The position of the first scientist to use flower properties as features of classification is due to the British researcher J. RAY (lat.: RAJUS, 1628 - 1705). He drew a clear line between mono- and dicotyledons after closely examining plant embryos. He did adopt the terminology from J. JUNGIUS and he additionally did influence C. V. LINNÉ. RAY established six rules (1703) which belong to the fundamental principels of plant systematics till today:

1. Names have not to be changed to avoid confusion and errors.
2. Characteristics have to be exactly and distinctively defined which means that those basing on relative relations like heights are not to be used.
3. Characteristics have to be easily detected by everybody.
4. Groups that are accepted by almost all botanists have to be kept.
5. It has to be taken care that related plants will not be seperated, unnatural ones and those that are different are not to be united.
6. Characteristics shall not without necessity be increased in number, but only as many shall be used as are necessary to make a reliable classification.

Based on these rules, he did try to deduce wider relationships (families, genera), introduced definitions for several genera and developed a key for the determination of plants that was founded on the principles mentioned above. Despite many positive ideas, he did, too, still adhere to the separation of wooden plants and herbs. 

Although the drawing up of botanical systematics was one of the main aims of botanical research of this time, all attempts to deduce natural relations failed due to the premises which were still partly wrong. It was believed that natural relations could be come to by a number of easily perceived features whose value for systematics was still a priori set in a subjective choice. The change came with CARL v. LINNÉ. 

After the guidelines for systematics had been developed, the classification of plants made speedily headway. A. L. DE JUSSIEU (1748 - 1836) designed familiy diagnoses, in which the features of the flower, the fruit and the vegetative organs were all taken into account. Instead of merely enumerating small groups and place them next to each other, he did introduce a conception of the plant kingdom as devided into bigger and gradually subordinated groups. LINNÉ had explicitly found this to be beyond his limits.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. " ~John Muir