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| Dr. Forrest Bump |
Due to my career in horticulture I have
been fortunate to have made acquaintance with a number of medical
doctors who are also avid plant collectors. Indeed I have made my
living off of them. They are good, smart people, and my wits have
been sharpened by them. One of my mentors was the late Dr. Forrest
Bump – what a great name! – of Forest Grove, Oregon who was our
family doctor. He fixed my broken ankle when I was in high school,
then later I became his equal in the world of horticulture, although
we were both probably more knowledgeable than each other...which is a
perfect relationship. I even met a noted horticulturist, Dr. Kim
Tripp of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum in North Carolina and later the
New York Botanical Garden, who switched her career from plants –
i.e. plant expert and plant health – to becoming a wellness-people
doctor. Wow – what a Tripp!
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| Magnolia denudata |
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| Pierre Magnol |
In olden times, physicians who served
best needed to be familiar with plants and their curing properties.
After all it was Pierre Magnol, after whom Linnaeus named the
Magnolia genus, who stated that “it would be very advantageous to
make a serious study of plants before practicing medicine.” While
that connection is not so vital today, it is not surprising that the
medical mind also finds interest and solace in botany and
horticulture. I remember one time that Dr. Bump whined to me that a
certain maple died in his garden “for no reason at all.” Being
quite familiar with plant death, I chirped back, “I wonder if you
have lost more plants in your garden than patients in the hospital?”
Then I sensed that I had gone too far when he muttered that, “most
who died were bound to die,” as if his maple was not
predisposed to expire.
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| Herbalist Bian Que (BC 407 - BC 310), China |
Plant study has gone on for thousands
of years in one form or another around the world. So many have uses
as medicine, food or for other purposes, one purpose being that many
are simply pleasant to the eye. Sometimes it is the
physician/botanist who is out collecting in the field, or other times
he or she is holed up in their study and just do the naming and
describing. Let's consider some who have coined names for they are in
the record book for all time.
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| Linnaeus |
A good place to begin with discussing
the physician/botanist is with Karl Linne, and the brilliant Swede
was so enamoured with Latin that he changed his name to Carolus
Linnaeus. Of course he was considered the “father of modern
taxonomy,” and is justly famous for developing binomial
nomenclature, i.e. grouping plants into genera and species which
eventually internationalized the naming of organisms. My most sharp
employees, after only a few months, can use the terminology and can
visualize the difference between Acer palmatum and Acer japonicum. We
don't say cedar for a Thuja or a Chamaecyparis or a Cupressus,
but rather: we identify plants as Thuja plicata, Chamaecyparis obtusa
or Cupressus lusitanica...even though all are commonly known as
“cedars.” So thanks Linnaeus, you helped Buchholz Nursery and the
Flora Wonder Arboretum to exist and thrive.
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| Homo sapiens |
One interesting note about Linnaeus –
who some found as quite arrogant,* was that he was also a renowned
zoologist, and his remains comprise the type specimen for Homo
sapiens, since the only specimen that he is known to have
examined was himself. Furthermore he referred to his students as his
apostles.
*Arrogantly, Linnaeus described his
1753 work, Species Plantarum, as “the greatest
achievement in the realm of science.”
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| Linnaeus holding Linnaea borealis |
An important event in the life of
Linnaeus was an expedition in his young years (age 24) to Lapland,
where he hoped to find new plants and animals, and also he was
interested about the native Sami people, the reindeer-herding nomads.
He travelled on foot and horse, and during the trip he found great
quantities of Campanula serpyllifolia which was later known as
Linnaea borealis, the humble “twin flower” that he so much
admired. After six months of observing many plants, birds and rocks,
he described about 100 previously unidentified plants. He had not
quite yet developed his binomial naming system, but his resulting
Flora Lapponica was considered the first proto-modern flora,
and botanical historian E.L. Greene described Flora Lapponica
as “the most classic and delightful” of Linnaeus's works.
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| The Hamburg Hydra |
I don't want to belabor the
contributions of Linnaeus, which all of you can access yourselves
through biographies or on the internet, but I find one incident
humorous that occurred in his younger days. In 1735 he travelled to
The Netherlands to study medicine at the University of Harderwijk,
and on the way stopped in Hamburg. There he met the mayor who showed
him an incredible wonder of nature, the taxidermied remains of a
seven-headed hydra. Linnaeus determined that the “wonder” was
fake, put together from the jaws and paws of weasels and the skin of
snakes. He didn't really want to disappoint the mayor, who hoped to
sell the hydra for a lot of money, but Linnaeus made his observation
public, and as a result he had to flee Hamburg.
Linnaeus was ill in his final years,
and suffered a stroke in 1774 which partially paralyzed him. Then in
1776 a second stroke caused a loss of memory. He was still able to
admire his own writings, but could not recognize himself as their
author.
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| Orto Botanico di Pisa |
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| Luca Ghini |
Luca Ghini (1490-1556) studied medicine
at the University of Bologna, then became a professor there and
lectured on medicinal plants, so again, another physician/botanist.
He developed the first recorded herbarium and also the first
botanical garden in Europe after moving to Pisa. The Orto Botanico di
Pisa is operated by the University of Pisa, located at via Luca Ghini
5, Pisa, Italy. The arboretum has been moved a couple of times, with
the third and final location in 1591. I would love to visit to see
the old botany institute building, constructed between 1591-1595, to
see its facade ornamented with sea-shells.
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| Caesalpina gilliesii |
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| Andrea Cesalpino |
Luca Ghini didn't publish any botanical
work of his own, but as a teacher he instructed student Andrea
Cesalpino (1519-1603) who eventually succeeded him in the herbarium
and botanical garden. Previously some botanists classified plants
alphabetically or by medicinal properties, but Cesalpino did it
according to their fruits and seeds. Besides teaching and tending the
garden, he made botanical explorations in different parts of
Italy...conduct which I admire. I can imagine great boredom and
resulting stupidity if someone spends too much time in a dusty
herbarium, and even though I own the Flora Wonder Arboretum that
contains many wonderful plants “from the best corners of the
world,” I still need to go outside into our natural areas to
see what they contain. Cesalpino (in Latin Andreas Caesalpinus) was
honored by the Franciscan friar Charles Plumier for the plant genus
of Caesalpina, which today includes some 150 species and belongs to
the Fabaceae (legume, pea or bean) family. Linnaeus admired Cesalpino
and retained the genus name in his system and praised his predecessor
with the following: “Quisquis hic exstiterit primos concedat
honores Casalpine Tibi primaque certa dabit,” which basically
says “Cesalpino was the best.”
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| Dahlia 'Isadora' |
Anders (Andreas) Dahl (1751-1789) –
my God, he lived only 38 years! – was a Swedish botanist and
student of Linnaeus, and of course the Dahlia genus is named after
him. In 1776 he passed an exam for medicine, but then everybody did
that who was interested in botany. Dahl served as curator of the
private natural museum and botanical garden of Clas Alstromer
(Alstromeria), who was a Linnaean disciple. In 1786 he became the
professor at the Academy of Abo (today's University of Helsinki)
teaching medicine and botany. It was supposed that the Dahlia genus
name was bestowed by Linnaeus, however L. died eleven years before
the plant was introduced into Europe, and it is now certain that it
was scientifically described by Antonio Jose Cavanilles, Director of
the Royal Gardens of Madrid who received the first specimens from
Mexico in 1791, two years after Dahl's death. Cavanilles learned
about science in Sweden, plus the fact that Dahl's book on botanical
observations had just appeared, and that drove him to honor Dahl for
the new Mexican plant: “In honorem D. Andreae Dahl, sueci
botanici.” Also, Carl Peter Thunberg, a friend from Uppsala,
named a species in the Hamamelidaceae family after Dahl, Dahlia
crinita, which was made in reference to Dahl's long beard, since
crinita is Latin for “long haired.” The name was published
in 1792, but has since been reclassified as Trichocladus crinitus.
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| Gardenia jasminoides 'Variegata' |
Alexander Garden (1730-1791) – yes,
great name – was a Scottish physician, botanist and zoologist, and
from his home in Charleston, South Carolina, he sent specimens to
Linnaeus. There in S.C. he practiced medicine while he collected the
flora and fauna, but was intellectually isolated, and he complained
there were no neighbors with similar interests: “there is not a
living soul who knows the least iota of Natural History.” Garden
sent Magnolia and Gordonia specimens to London and wrote descriptions
of Fothergilla, but with Gardenia, the plant named for him, he wasn't
even familiar with. Linnaeus was pushed to name a plant for Garden
and he chose the South African “Cape jasmine.” Garden sided with
the British in the American War of Independence. Two years later his
property was confiscated and he moved to London where he became
vice-president of the Royal Society, lucky to get out of America
alive. |
| Stephan Endlicher |
Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher (1804-1849)
was born in a German-speaking town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and
he studied theology and languages, then in 1828 he began his studies
in medicine. Still, he had time to become proficient in Hungarian,
Czech, German, French, Chinese, Italian, English and Latin of course,
as well as ancient language forms. Remarkable since he only lived 45
years. Eventually he was appointed Director of the Botanical Gardens
for the University of Vienna.
Sequoia sempervirens
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| Sequoyah |
Endlicher named or co-named over 1600
plants from the tropics alone, and sometimes he honored people, and
other times named with the characteristics of the plants themselves.
He corresponded with Austrian botanist Eduard Poeppig who had an
interest in plants and people of North and South America. Endlicher
also corresponded with French linguist Peter Du Ponceau who served in
the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Du Ponceau was
an expert in American Indian languages and he was fascinated that
Sequoyah (1776-1843), the illiterate son of a fur trader
father and a Cherokee mother, had created a Cherokee syllabary for
his people. So Endlicher was familiar with Sequoyah's accomplishment.
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| Sequoia sempervirens |
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| Charles V |
Endlicher produced the Synopsis
Coniferum in 1847, where he reviewed several genera and
reclassified some including Taxodium sempervirens, or the
“coast redwood” of California, previously named by Lambert and
Don. Since Endlicher was a polyglot* – one who knows multiple
languages – he appreciated Sequoyah's brilliance and honored him
with the Sequoia name a few years after the half-breed's
death.
*Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was a
polyglot too. He claimed that he addressed his horse only in German,
conversed with women in Italian and men in French, but used Spanish
for his talks with God. The term polyglot is derived from Greek
“polyglotteos,” from poly for “many” and glotta for
“language” or “tongue.”
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| John Gerard |
John Gerard (1545-1612) described
himself as “Master of Chirurgerie,* Warden of Company of
Barber-Surgeons, becoming a Master in 1608. He was curator of the
College of Physicians garden and author of the famous Herball
in 1597. Though his work was flawed in various respects, he was noted
for his clear descriptions of plants, especially the new flora from
America such as the potato, maize, sunflowers and tomato, the latter
which was considered the “apple of love,” and thought to be an
aphrodisiac. Another of one of the newer plants was Yucca, and Gerard
had one in his garden except that it didn't bloom in his lifetime.
Yucca is a perennial genus in the Asparagaceae family, but early
reports of the genus were confused with the cassava (Manihot
esculenta), and because of that Linnaeus mistakenly coined the
generic name from the Taino word yuca (with a single
“c”). So even though Linnaeus considered his 1753 Species
Plantarum “the greatest achievement in the realm of science,”
it does contain the Yucca, and other mistakes.
*Chirurgeon is an archaic word for
“surgeon.”
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| Yucca rostrata |
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| John Parkinson |
A piece of Gerard's Yucca root was
passed on to John Parkinson (1567-1650), a gardener and apothecary to
James I. He tried to correct the Yucca mistake, but by then it was
too late and it has been called Yucca ever since. In 1629 Parkinson
produced his Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris which
punned on his name Park-in-sun. You see: these
botanists/herbalists were not complete nerds, complete bores. And by
the way, the Yucca finally did bloom for Parkinson.
Thomas Johnson was an eight-year-long
apprentice to the apothecary William Bell and he was friendly to
Parkinson whom he lauded. Johnson made plant-hunting expeditions
throughout Britain, the earliest accounts of plant-hunting
expeditions ever to be published in England. Flanking the title of
Johnson's Herball (1633) edition is revealed, “Very much
Enlarged and Ammended by Thomas Johnson Citizen and Apothecarye.”
Depicted in the edition are “Theophrastus, soulful in sandals, and
Dioscorides in a suitably warlike outfit.” This wonderful
description is provided by Anna Pavord in her Naming of Names –
The Search for Order in the World of Plants, a must-read for
anyone caring anything about this blog.
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| Theophrastus |
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| Historia Plantarum |
In a nutshell, Theophrastus (372-287
BC) was a Greek philosopher and contemporary of Aristotle; in fact
Aristotle left Theo his extensive library upon his death. Aristotle,
besides being a famous philosopher, was a first-rate scientist, with
his primary interest being with human and animal anatomy, especially
creatures from the sea. What Aristotle did for animals, Theophrastus
did for plants, and was perhaps the first person to describe plants
based on their differences and similarities. Theo produced Historia
plantarum and Causae plantarum which reveal that his
brilliant mind was equal to that of Aristotle. They collaborated for
a few years on the Isle of Lesbos, where science, rather than
philosophy, was their primary endeavor.
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| Pedanius Dioscorides |
Pedanius Dioscorides (AD 40-?) was a
Greek physician and author who joined the Roman army as a doctor. At
the time he was considered the ultimate authority on medicinal
plants, and his reputation continued for over a thousand years. He
produced his Materia Medica, or medical material, a
Latin term for the “history of pharmacy.” The term has now been
replaced in medical education as pharmacology. Keep in mind
that before Dioscorides, various materia medicas had been in
existence in Ancient Egypt, China, India and probably in the Americas
also.
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| Hippocrates |
And don't forget Hippocrates (born 460
BC) who was a philosopher and known as the “Father of Medicine.”
He focused on treating the causes of diseases rather than the
symptoms. He produced Aphorisms and Prognostics which
discussed 265 drugs, and he was aware of the importance of diet for
optimum health. I'll oath to that!
I suspect that most nurserymen today –
at least the yokels in Oregon – have little understanding or
appreciation of the history of plant knowledge. Certainly it's not
necessary to operate a successful plant factory. Thousands of
Japanese maples are cranked out in Oregon every year by at least a
couple of hundred nurseries, but I doubt that more than a dozen
growers could tell you if the species are monocious or diocious. Even
though I don't have the brains to be a bonafide botanist, what little
I do understand is fascinating, and especially its history. It helps
to spice up the risks, drudgery and sore back of being a nurseryman.
