DOCSLIB.ORG

New Light on Mark Catesby 349

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
New Light on Mark Catesby 349 ¾o1.1937 5•'1J ALLEN,New Light on Mark Catesby 349 NEW LIGHT ON MARK CATESBY BY ELSA G. ALLEN, PH.D. Plate œ3 F•w of the early naturalistshave left so worthy and so substantiala contributionto scienceand yet suchmeager details of their biographiesas hasMark Cateshy. In fact, it hasoften been said that it wouldbe difficult, if not impossible,to trace out the story of his life from the scantsources available. The progressof this study has thereforebeen disappointingly slow, but throughthe aid of the AmericanCouncil of LearnedSocieties, the AmericanPhilosophical Society and a fellowshipfrom Alpha Omicron Pi Society,ofwhich I am a member,I havebeen able to seekout in England a fewdetails of Catesby'slife whileworking on the generalproblem of pre- AudubonJanornithology. The publishedmatter on this earlynaturalist is unfortunatelylimited to a few shortarticles, two by Dr. WitruerStone ('Bird-Lore,' vol. 7, 1905,and 'The Auk,' October1929)and brief accounts in the'Dictionaries of National Biography'and 'AmericanBiography' as well asin the olderstandard works of this type. In addition,there are a few scatteredmentions of Cateshyin the 'VirginiaMagazine' and other Southernjournals. With thesefew basicarticles to work from it has beena great help to meeta collateraldescendant of Mark Cateshy,Mr. T. CateshyJones of New York, for putting me in touchwith whomI am indebtedto Mr. Alexander Sprunt of Charleston,South Carolina. To Mr. JonesI am indebted for informationregarding the whereaboutsof someof Catesby'sletters and othermatter. He is the donor,many will recall,of a memorialplaque to ColonelThomas Jones and Mark Cateshyin WilliamsburgChapel, Wil- liamsburg,Virginia. However, the combinedinformation contained in thesevarious accounts and offeredby theseseveral leads, still leavesus in ignoranceof Mark Catesby'sbirth and final resting-place,his parentage, his education,and most of the detailsof his adultlife beyondthe factsthat he madetwo trips to America,one in 1712and a later onein 1722,and was electeda memberof the Royal Society of Londonin re9ognitionof thepubli- cation of his two-volumework 'The Natural History of Carolina,Florida and the BahamaIslands,' which cameout in separatenumbers between 1731 and 1743. 17AMILY,i•ARENTAGE AND BIRTH Accordingto C. W. Bardsley's'Dictionary of Englishand Welch Sur- names,'the Cateshyfamily is from the fertile inland countyof Northamp- ton, and all the Catesbysin the 'Dictionaryof National Biography'may ultimatelybe tracedto this interiorsection of Englandand probablyhad their nameoriginally from the Parishof Catesby. 350 A•.a•EN,New Light on Mark Catesby tJuly[Auk On his mother'sside Mark Catesby was a direct descendantof Thomas Jekyll, born January 21, 1570, antiquary and historian of the Countiesof Essex,Norfolk and Suffolk. There were two rather distinguishedsons of this ThomasJekyll: ThomasJekyll, a divine,and Sir JosephJekyll, Master of the Rolls, knightedin 1700 and a memberof the Privy Council,who left part of his private fortune to relieve the national debt. A third son of Thomas Jekyll was NicholasJekyll, apparentlynot known in public life. Nicholas Jekyll was the grandfatherof Mark Catesby, and the father of Catesby'smother, Elizabeth Jekyll. On his father's side alsoCatesby was of the blood of lawyers;for his father, John Catesby,was a magistrateof the town of Sudburyin Suffolkand severaltimes its mayor,--and a very spiritedgentleman and politicianhe was. He ownedconsiderable property in London in the neighborhoodof Fleet Street, as well as severalfarms, dwellingsand other holdingsin Suffolk, some of which he left to his son Mark. The marriageof Mark Catesby'sparents took placeMay 16, 1670, and is recordedin Foster's 'London Marriage Licenses,1524-1869': "John Catesby, gentleman,about 28, bachelor,and Elizabeth Jekyll of Castle Hedingham,spinster, 18, her father consents,at St. Andrews,Holborn, or Gray's Inn, or Charter House Chapel,London." There were numerous offspringof this marriage:twin sonsrecorded in St. Gregory'sChapel, Sud- bury, 12th September,1675; Elizabeth Catesbywho, againsther father's wishes,married Dr. William Cocke of Virginia; Jekyll Catesby; John Catesby; and Ann and Mark Catesby. The exact order in which these childrenwere born I have not yet workedout, but Mark and Ann wereboth of the decade 1680-1690. The date and placeof Mark Catesby'sbirth have never beendefinitely knownbut are enteredvariously and with question-marks,a.s probably Sudburyor Londonin 1679 or 1680. A searchof the parishregisters of Sudburyfailed to revealMark's birth but yieldedthat of his sisterAnn, in 1688. However, knowingthat his mother was from the village of Castle Hedingham,about eight miles from Sudburyin Essex,just over the little borderingriver Stout, I took occasionto examinethe registersof the old Norman churchof Saint Nicholasand was glad to find Mark Catesby's birth and baptismthere enteredin fairly legibleform, as follows:"Mark Catesby,son of John Catesby,gent, and Elizabeth, his wife. Baptize-- March 30, Nates March 24th, 1682." In all probabilityMark was born in the villageof CastleHedingham in the housewhich, it is likely, wasbuilt as well as occupiedby his grandfather, Nicholas Jekyll. This houseis still standing,--a picturesque17th centurytype,--at the southend of the village. It has been said and published! that the Jekyll family ownedand See Lewis H. Jones's 'Captain l•oger Jones of London and Virginia,' Alb0•ny, 1891. Vol.1937 54]] ALLEN,New Light on Mark Catesby 351 operatedthe old castlenow in ruinswhich stands on a hill overlookingthis villageand knownas HedinghamCastle. But thiserroneous statement has doubtlessgrown out of the confusionexisting in the useof the namesCastle Hedlnghamand HedinghamCastle indiscriminately for both the castleand the village. I am indebtedto my friend,Mr. C. F. D. Sperlingof Sudbury, for an explanationof thismatter. He haspointed out to me alsothe epitaph whichformerly stood over the graveof Mark Catesby'smaternal grand- parentsin the churchyardof CastleHedingham, and alsothe old Jekyll homeknown as 'Shapcote,'in the village. We know from the entry in the ParishRegister of Saint Nicholasthat Cateshywas three yearsyounger than his reportedage at death, the date of which has been publishedas December23, 1749. In Lewis H. Jones's 'Captain Roger Jonesof London and Virginia,' Albany, 1891, there is a noticepurporting to be an excerptfrom a Londonnewspaper, as follows: "On Saturday,December 23, 1749, died at his homebehind St. Luke's churchin Old Street, the truly honestand ingeniousand modestMr. Mark Catesby....... He lived to age of 70 [his proved date of birth makeshim only 67 at death], well known to and esteemedby the curiousof this and other nations,and died muchlamented by his Friends, leavingbehind him two childrenand a widowwho has a few copiesof his noblework undisposedof." Also,in the 'Gentleman'sMagazine' (vol. 19, p. 573), there is a list of deathsfor the year 1749,and we read: "Mr. Mark Catesby,F. R. S., aged 70, author of the Natural History of Carolina, a large and curiouswork which is the chief supportof his widow and two children." RegardingCatesby's education it is difficultto learn anythingbut it is probablethat he attendedthe old GrammarSchool of Sudburyfounded in 1491 by William Wood. However,upon goingthere to consultthe files, I wasinformed that all the recordsprevious to 1837had beenburned. Catesbyis saidto have goneearly in life to London,because of his inter- est in natural history,and in the prefaceto his 'Natural History' he re- gretfully refersto his distant residencefrom London,the natural Mecca of the learned. MARK CATESBY'S PLACES OF RESIDENCE IN LONDON Cateshyis said to have lived in three differentparts of Londonproper: Fulham, Hoxton, and Old Street,which is in St. Luke's Parish in Middlesex. No letters that have yet come to light were written in Fulham, but in 'Britton & Boulger,British and Irish Botanists,'he is saidto be "of Hoxton and Fulham." We know from a letter of Mark Cateshyto his niece,Mrs. Jones,that in 1730he wasliving in Hoxton, a part of Londonwhere several botanistsand nurserymenresided, notably Thomas Fairchild, the authorof 352 ALLEN,New Light on Mark Catesby œJuly[Auk 'The City Gardener,' 1722, and an experimenterin the hybridization of plants. Catesby'slatter years,at least,were spent in the Parishof St.Luke, --Old Street,--a poorsection of Londonat that time and alsotoday, al- thoughthe buildingsof the mid-eighteenthcentury have beenlargely re- placed. It is probablethat he wasburied in the old churchyardof St. Luke's,but the only entry in the churchregister possibly referring to him is in the name of Sketesby,being death entry No. 26 for that month, and with the cause of death given as "age." Errors in namessuch as this werevery common in thosetimes for they wereoften set downby uneducatedassistants of the undertaker,and unlessdeaths occurred from a few definitediseases they were saidto be dueto "age." It is evident,however, that Catesbywas suffering from a dropsicalcondition shortly before his death,as we may gatherfrom a letter• of Mr. Knowltonto Mr. RichardRichardson, dated July 18, 1749. Speakingof a trip to Londonhe says:"I sawlikewise Messrs. Cateshy and Edwards who has materialsfor a third volume of Birds, Flies and Animals, etc., but poorMr. Catesby'slegs swell and he looksbadly. Drs. Mead and Stacksaid there was little hopesof him longthis sideof the grave." In talkingwith the presentvicar of this church,I learnedthat although many tombstonesstill remain,the graveshave in most
Load more

Recommended publications
  • British and Colonial Naturalists Respond to an Enlightenment Creed, 1727–1777
    “So Many Things for His Profit and for His Pleasure”: British and Colonial Naturalists Respond to an Enlightenment Creed, 1727–1777 N MAY OF 1773 the Pennsylvania farmer and naturalist John Bartram (1699–1777) wrote to the son of his old colleague Peter Collinson I(1694–1768), the London-based merchant, botanist, and seed trader who had passed away nearly five years earlier, to communicate his worry over the “extirpation of the native inhabitants” living within American forests.1 Michael Collinson returned Bartram’s letter in July of that same year and was stirred by the “striking and curious” observations made by his deceased father’s friend and trusted natural historian from across the Atlantic. The relative threat to humanity posed by the extinction of species generally remained an unresolved issue in the minds of most eighteenth-century naturalists, but the younger Collinson was evidently troubled by the force of Bartram’s remarks. Your comments “carry Conviction along with them,” he wrote, “and indeed I cannot help thinking but that in the period you mention notwithstanding the amazing Recesses your prodigious Continent affords many of the present Species will become extinct.” Both Bartram and Collinson were anxious about certain changes to the environment engendered by more than a century of vigorous Atlantic trade in the colonies’ indigenous flora and fauna. Collinson 1 The terms botanist and naturalist carry different connotations, but are generally used interchange- ably here. Botanists were essentially those men that used Linnaeus’s classification to characterize plant life. They were part of the growing cadre of professional scientists in the eighteenth century who endeavored to efface irrational forms of natural knowledge, i.e., those grounded in folk traditions rather than empirical data.
    [Show full text]
  • “Jogging Along with and Without James Logan: Early Plant Science in Philadelphia”
    1 Friday, 19 September 2014, 1:30–3:00 p.m.: Panel II: “Leaves” “Jogging Along With and Without James Logan: Early Plant Science in Philadelphia” Joel T. Fry, Bartram's Garden Presented at the ― James Logan and the Networks of Atlantic Culture and Politics, 1699-1751 conference Philadelphia, PA, 18-20 September 2014 Please do not cite, quote, or circulate without written permission from the author These days, John Bartram (1699-1777) and James Logan (1674-1751) are routinely recognized as significant figures in early American science, and particularly botanic science, even if exactly what they accomplished is not so well known. Logan has been described by Brooke Hindle as “undoubtedly the most distinguished scientist in the area” and “It was in botany that James Logan made his greatest contribution to science.” 1 Raymond Stearns echoed, “Logan’s greatest contribution to science was in botany.”2 John Bartram has been repeatedly crowned as the “greatest natural botanist in the world” by Linnaeus no less, since the early 19th century, although tracing the source for that quote and claim can prove difficult.3 Certainly Logan was a great thinker and scholar, along with his significant political and social career in early Pennsylvania. Was Logan a significant botanist—maybe not? John Bartram too may not have been “the greatest natural botanist in the world,” but he was very definitely a unique genius in his own right, and almost certainly by 1750 Bartram was the best informed scientist in the Anglo-American world on the plants of eastern North America. There was a short period of active scientific collaboration in botany between Bartram and Logan, which lasted at most through the years 1736 to 1738.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Cultivation of Macaronesian Plants in Three European Botanic Gardens
    Rev. Acad. Canar. Cicnc, XXIII (Num. 3), 1 13-143 (201 1) (publicado en abril de 2012) EARLY CULTIVATION OF MACARONESIAN PLANTS IN THREE EUROPEAN BOTANIC GARDENS - J. Francisco-Ortega' -, A. Santos-Guerra\ L. Sanchez-Pinto\ & M. Maunder' Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, U.S.A. e-mail: ortegajrafiu.edu (correspondence) ^Center for Tropical Plant Conservation, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden 1 1935 Old Cutler Road. Coral Gables (Miami), FL 33 156, U.S.A. ^ Unidad de Botanica, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias Calle Retama, num. 2, Puerto de la Cruz, 38400 Tenerife. Spain * Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Calle Fuente Morales, num. 2 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38003 Tenerife, Spain ABSTRACT The Chelsea Physic Garden (London) (established in 1673), the Botanic Garden of Amsterdam (established in 1682), and the Clifford's Hartekamp Gardens (the Netherlands, es- tablished in 1 709 by George Clifford II) were among the most important pre-Linnaean botanic gardens in Europe and were famous because of their living collections of exotic plants. There is relatively extensive documentation of what plant material was grown in these botanic gar- dens prior to Linnaeus establishing the now generally accepted binomial system for naming plants. A study of these documents pertinent to species originally from the Macaronesian Is- lands is presented as a contribution to the history of European plant collections and the in- troduction of new exotics to European horticulture. A total of 29 taxa from the region w ere cultivated in at least one of these gardens between 1689 and 1751.
    [Show full text]
  • A Short History of the Library at Apothecaries' Hall
    A Short History of the Library at Apothecaries’ Hall. Original research compiled by Roy Sinclair. Liveryman Edited and produced by Nicholas Wood. Curator and Past Master Additional Reviews by John Ford and Elizabeth Wood. Liverymen 1 Frontispiece to the Catalogue of the Library of the Society of Apothecaries By William Bramley Taylor edited by J E Harting published in 1913 (This same image is also in C.R.B. Barrett’s 1905 History of the Society, p.101) The image suggests that the cabinet glass is leaded. The current glass (2018) is plain with the corners ‘missing’ to allow air to circulate inside. Introduction. It could be claimed that the Library in Apothecaries’ Hall was started in November 1633 when Thomas Johnson of Snow Hill donated a copy of his much improved and expanded edition of ‘Gerardes Herball’. In return, Johnson was made free of the Livery, and presented with a gown and hood. From such small beginnings a collection of books at the Hall was built up, donated, sold, removed and built up again over the course of nearly 400 years, to what it is today. From that single donation of an important book (and one that is still published today though in a very different format) many donations of books over the years have been recorded. Sometimes, just a single book or a few volumes are noted but titles are not mentioned. In other cases, bequests of books are again recorded but no list of the books in the bequest are provided. One bequest resulted in books being transferred to the Physic Garden site in dribs and drabs over a period of over 200 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Natural Science Collections Volume 6
    NatSCA Journal of Natural Science Collections Index ISSN 2053-1133 Volume 6 | 2018 J ournal of Naturalournal of ScienceCollections Editorial 1 Rachel Jennings View from the Chair 2 Paolo Viscardi Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections 4 Subhadra Das and Miranda Lowe Mollusca Types in Great Britain: founding a union database 15 Jonathan D. Ablett, Jennifer Gallichan, Anna Holmes, Graham Oliver, Ben Rowson, Andreia Salvador, James Turner, and Harriet Wood Cambridge University Herbarium: rediscovering a botanical treasure trove 31 Lauren M. Gardiner The Murphy spider collection at the Manchester Museum: a valuable research resource for arachnologists 48 Diana Arzuza Buelvas Across the Continents: communicating ecology to schools in Cambridge and Southeast Asia 60 Sara Steele Movers, not shakers: challenges and solutions for relocating an entomology collection 58 Ana E. Herrero, Kim Chandler, and Paolo Viscardi Clean and Constrain: a pest management protocol and an overview of some collections management 79 considerations for microscope slide collections Lyndsey Flanagan, Alacoque White, and Paolo Viscardi Driggsby the fin whale’s museum ecosystem: the collection, conservation, and installation of a new museum 87 icon Simon Jackson and Nigel R. Larkin Using theatre skills in a science exhibition: Dinosaurs of China in Nottingham 99 Martin Nunn and Adam S. Smith NatSCA 2018 AGM Minutes 112 Thursday 26 April 2018 Volume 6 6 Volume 2018 NatSCA Journal of Natural Science Collections Index ISSN 2053-1133 Volume 6 | 2018 J ournal of Naturalournal of ScienceCollections Editorial 1 Rachel Jennings View from the Chair 2 Paolo Viscardi Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections 4 Subhadra Das and Miranda Lowe Mollusca Types in Great Britain: founding a union database 15 Jonathan D.
    [Show full text]
  • Flowerbeds and Hothouses: Botany, Gardens, and the Tcirculation of Knowledge in Things Arens, Esther Helena
    www.ssoar.info Flowerbeds and hothouses: botany, gardens, and the tcirculation of knowledge in Things Arens, Esther Helena Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Zur Verfügung gestellt in Kooperation mit / provided in cooperation with: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Arens, E. H. (2015). Flowerbeds and hothouses: botany, gardens, and the tcirculation of knowledge in Things. Historical Social Research, 40(1), 265-283. https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.40.2015.1.265-283 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur This document is made available under a CC BY Licence Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden (Attribution). For more Information see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de Diese Version ist zitierbar unter / This version is citable under: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-419430 Flowerbeds and Hothouses: Botany, Gardens, and the Circulation of Knowledge in Things ∗ Esther Helena Arens Abstract: »Beet und Treibhaus. Botanik, Gärten und die Zirkulation von Ding- wissen«. The development and management of planted spaces in Northwestern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries depended on the possibilities for circula- tion in the republic of letters of the Dutch golden age. Circulation was accom- panied by questions of managing space, information and “epistemic things” (Rheinberger) for botanists. Against the conceptual backdrop of “circulation” (Raj), “circulatory regimes” (Saunier) and “ensembles of things” (Hahn), this pa- per analyses, first, flowerbeds as a script for managing information that shaped botanical gardens across Europe in Leiden, Uppsala, Coimbra, and as far as Ba- tavia according to Linnaean principles.
    [Show full text]
  • The Apothecary As Man of Science
    Iv THE APOTHECARY AS MAN OF SCIENCE INTRODUCTION The development and use of rational scientific methods was well established by the mid-seventeenth century. The collection of data and the systematic arrangement of ideas, the application of mathematics and sound reasoning, and, above all, the experi- mental testing of hypotheses, advocated by men of the calibre of Johan Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and Rene Descartes (1596-1650) were, by the time of the Commonwealth, accepted roads to the advancement of knowledge. A new intellectual outlook had evolved, as noted by John Aubrey (1626-97) in 1671, "Till about the year 1649 'twas held a strange presumption for a man to attempt an innovation of learning". The English apothecary was, of course, much influenced by these changes. He developed methods of inquiry and investigation, he experimented, he joined societies, he wrote to like-minded contemporaries, he published his findings, and, above all, he had the good fortune to be caught in the toils of collectors' mania, be it "curiosities" or new information. The apothecary had a particular interest in those fields that most closely impinged upon his own profession - botany, chemistry, and medicine. Although considerable advances in the description and classification of plants and animals had been made by 1760, no great theoretical principles or "laws" of biology had been developed. It should be noted, though, that the generation of scientists arriv- ing on the scene after 1760 was able to study an immensely richer collection of natural history specimens from distant lands, which helped towards developing new interpretations of Nature based on sounder doctrines.
    [Show full text]
  • The Education and Cultural Interests Of-The Apothecary
    v THE EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INTERESTS OF-THE APOTHECARY The apothecary obtained his professional training by apprenticeship, a system which, at its best, as Clark has said .. was fully justified".257 Amongst its benefits was the direct transmission to the apprentice of a fund of clinical experience, the advantage of continuously attending the same patients and thereby seeing the progression of a disease, and a practical training that was free from the detrimental interference of both theorists and theories. This last point was not solely confined to the study of medicine. Pilkington believed that Boyle was able to demolish "the four-element system of the scholastics" and "the three-principle notion of the alchemists" because, amongst other things, ". he had not been to the university and so he escaped prolonged indoctrination with scholastic teaching . .''258 The Statute of Artificers (1563) made apprenticeship a legal necessity for the practice of all trades and crafts, and demanded that it should last for seven years.259 Cameron stated that the apothecaries of the London company chose their apprentices with care and that in the time of Queen Anne their education, at least in pharmacy, was efficient.260 A boy aged between fourteen and sixteen was taken to the Hall and there orally examined before the Private Court as to his general knowledge. The examiners laid particular stress on his ability to read and write Latin, and we know of at least one boy who was rejected for insufficiency in that subject.261 After his time was finished, the young man was again examined by the court; most passed, but by no means all.
    [Show full text]
  • Djvu Document
    BULL. BOT. SURV. INDIA VoL 21, Nos. 1-4 : pp. 35-67, 1979 COMMEMORATIVE GENERIC NAMES OF FLOWERING PLANTS IN INDIA Botanical Surq of India, Howrah ABSTRACT Commemorative generic names of plants are given in honour of well known botanists and patrons of science for the contributions they made for the cause of botany. The names are given in alphabetical order with their families and one example under each gcnw. A brief biographical sketch of the person is also given. Plants named after botanists and eminent persons form one continuous historical sequence in the development of Natural history. INTRODUCTION In 1867 Alphonse de Candolle, son of A. P. Naming of plants and animals using two- De Candolle with his legal background first word names is as old as human civilization proposed the rules of nomenclature in "Lois and is commonly seen in all languages. In de la Nomenclature Botanique" (1867). In I 753 Carl ~innaeusin his Species Plantarum the Vienna botanical congress (Igo j), these consistently used the two-word system in rules were officially designated as "Interna- Latin for about 5900 Linnean specific epi- tional Rules of Botanical Nomenclature" and thets which was hailed as the binomial since 1952 it is called as "International Code system of nomenclature. In the 18th of Botanical Nomenclature" Plant names century in Europe, Latin was the accepted named after botanists and eminent persous language of scholarship and common form one continuous historical sequence in medium of communication cutting across the development of Natural history. Gen- national boundaries. According to the eric names are given in alphabetical order rules of naming mostly botanical generic and under the first genus Abelia R.
    [Show full text]
  • Linnaeus' and Magnolia's 250Th Formal Anniversary
    ISSUE 73 Linnaeus' and Magnolia's 250m Formal Anniversary Nisse vsn Nanna I have no idea what Americans do on the first of May but in Europe it's Labour Day, on which day we, strangely enough, do not work. This year it is also the day that we celebrate the a5o anniversary of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum and at first sight these two events don't have anything in common. That is, until you begin to realise what tremendous labour it must have been for Linnaeus to compile those two volumes: the preparation of the definite version of the manuscript alone took him over a year and that was after he finished assembling his notes and having written a first draft. It is well documented that Linnaeus was literally exhausted when he finally bmught the manuscript to the printer. In this light, it was not at all a bad idea to call this date Labour Day. This first edition of Species Plantaruvt has later become the starting point for bo- tanical nomenclature. For us, it is of interest because Linnaeus included accounts on Liriodevdrov, Magnolia, and Michelia in the Species and anyone who's interested in the history of the naming of our favourite plants sooner or later will want to consult this work. This artide is on the origin of the Species Plan tarum and on the sources Linnaeus used for the names of Magnoliaceae avant ia lettre. Early history of the Species Plsntsrnm The preparation of the Species had begun as early as 1732 when Carl Linnaeus (iyo7-i778) was identifying plant specimens he had collected in Lapland and felt the need for a comprehensive work.
    [Show full text]
  • A Nomenclatural Summary of the Plant and Animal Names Based on Images in Mark Catesby’S Natural History (1729–1747)
    Reveal, J.L. 2012. A nomenclatural summary of the plant and animal names based on images in Mark Catesby’s Natural History (1729–1747). Phytoneuron 2012-11: 1–32. Published 1 February 2012. ISSN 2153 733X A NOMENCLATURAL SUMMARY OF THE PLANT AND ANIMAL NAMES BASED ON IMAGES IN MARK CATESBY’S NATURAL HISTORY (1729–1747) JAMES L. REVEAL L.H. Bailey Hortorium Department of Plant Biology Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4301 e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT The English naturalist Mark Catesby is best known for his two volume work entitled Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands wherein he described and illustrated numerous plants and animals found mainly in the eastern North American English colonies of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Bahamas. This monumental work, published in parts from 1729 until 1747, became an important source of new species described by the Swedish natural Carl Linnaeus in the 1750s and 1760s. The summary presented here attempts to account for all instances where a new taxon was proposed wherein a reference was made by the author of the name to a published plate in Catesby. The nomenclatural status of each image is evaluated with a footnote providing a reference to both where the name was proposed and who, in the case of plants, designated a lectotype. Images are not considered to be types under the rules governing zoological nomenclature. No attempt is made here to account for the subsequent neotypification of names established under that code. KEY WORDS: Mark Catesby, nomenclature, typification, North America The English naturalist and artist, Mark Catesby, was born on 24 March 1683 (Julian) in the village of the Castle Hedingham, Essex, as the fifth son of John Catesby, a lawyer, and Elizabeth Jekyll, the daughter of a prosperous family of lawyers.
    [Show full text]
  • A Short History of the Library at Apothecaries' Hall
    A Short History of the Library at Apothecaries’ Hall. Original research compiled by Roy Sinclair. Liveryman Edited and produced by Nicholas Wood. Curator and Past Master Additional Reviews by John Ford and Elizabeth Wood. Liverymen 1 Frontispiece to the Catalogue of the Library of the Society of Apothecaries By William Bramley Taylor edited by J E Harting published in 1913 (This same image is also in C.R.B. Barrett’s 1905 History of the Society, p.101) The image suggests that the cabinet glass is leaded. The current glass (2018) is plain with the corners ‘missing’ to allow air to circulate inside. Introduction It could be claimed that the Library in Apothecaries’ Hall was started in November 1633 when Thomas Johnson of Snow Hill donated a copy of his much improved and expanded edition of ‘Gerardes Herball’. In return, Johnson was made free of the Livery, and presented with a gown and hood. From such small beginnings a collection of books at the Hall was built up, donated, sold, removed and built up again over the course of nearly 400 years, to what it is today. From that single donation of an important book (and one that is still published today though in a very different format) many donations of books over the years have been recorded. Sometimes, just a single book or a few volumes are noted but titles are not mentioned. In other cases, bequests of books are again recorded but no list of the books in the bequest are provided. One bequest resulted in books being transferred to the Physic Garden site in dribs and drabs over a period of over 200 years.
    [Show full text]