Colonial Correspondents and Joseph Dalton Hooker

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Colonial Correspondents and Joseph Dalton Hooker Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Volume 147, 2013 33 COLONIAL CORRESPONDENTS AND JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER by Anita Hansen (with two plates) Hansen, A. 2013(17:xii): Colonial correspondents and Joseph Dalton Hooker. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 147: 33-–40. https://doi.org/10.26749/rstpp.147.33 ISSN 0080–4703. University of Tasmania, Centre for the Arts, Hunter Street, Hobart. Locked Bag 57, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Current address: 13 Oldham Avenue, New Town, Tasmania 7008, Australia. Email: [email protected] Dr Joseph Dalton Hooker of Kew Gardens in London built his reputation as a botanist, to a large extent, on his publication of the floras of the southern ocean, namely his The Botany of The Antarctic Voyage of HM Discovery ShipsErebus and Terror, in the Years 1839–1843, a set of books that contains Flora Antarctica, Flora Novae Zelandiae and Flora Tasmaniae. Although Hooker had visited all of these places on the voyage and collected a substantial number of botanical specimens for his research, he alone could not have assembled the comprehensive herbarium needed for such a wide-ranging set of flora. To aid him in this endeavour, Hooker relied on an enthusiastic group of colonial correspondents and collectors. He regarded the specimens, and the information about them, sent by the colonial correspondents as belonging to the metropolitan centre at Kew. However, as these correspondents gained botanical knowledge, in particular William Archer, Ronald Campbell Gunn and William Colenso, they clamoured for recognition of their expertise, something Hooker was not always willing to bestow. Key Words: William Archer, Joseph Dalton Hooker, natural history, botany, Flora Tasmaniae, Ronald Campbell Gunn, William Colenso. INTRODUCTION Sinclair (c. 1796–1861) and David Lyall (1817–1895) for their assistance, they are not included here as they were During the nineteenth century, Sir William Jackson not long-term residents of the colonies. Hooker (1785–1865) and his son Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) established a network of correspondents and collectors across the British Empire. There is a clear distinction SCIENCE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA between correspondents and collectors. As Stevens succinctly put it: “‘Collectors’ were just that; they collected.” (Stevens The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a period of 1997, p. 346), and they were usually paid to do so, while the great British scientific voyages and of rapid expansion of correspondents were individuals whose interest in botany led the British Empire. This coincided with an era that Holmes them to send specimens and, most importantly, information (2009) terms the “second scientific revolution”, defined as about the specimens, to the Hookers without payment. dating between Captain James Cook’s circumnavigation Specimens of their local flora were sent to the Hookers, voyage in the Endeavour, begun in 1768, and that of Charles first to Glasgow University where William Hooker lectured Darwin’s voyage aboard the Beagle, begun in 1831. Cook in botany, and later to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. (1728–1779) landed in New Zealand in 1769, and then These specimens would eventually make the herbarium at sailed on to New Holland (later Australia), claiming the Kew the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Joseph east coast for England in 1770. Hooker established his career as one of the leading botanists While the early European discovery and exploration of of his era while having access to that vast herbarium. But Australia and New Zealand was carried out by the British was Hooker’s knowledge gained purely by the use of the navy, the fauna and flora specimens collected on those physical specimens? expeditions were often held by private individuals — for Joseph Hooker also used critical botanical information example, Sir Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin — wealthy provided by correspondents that related to the specimens — men who joined the expeditions in a civilian capacity in their characteristics, behaviour, habitat, location, and their search of new and exotic natural history specimens. In environment — in the same manner that the herbarium Britain during this period, the study of natural history was, specimens themselves were collected and used. That on the whole, only able to be practised full-time by men information was considered as much a possession of the of independent means. However, realising the economic metropolitan centre as the physical specimens themselves. potential in some of the new botanical discoveries, naval This is demonstrated by the correspondence held at Kew officers were assigned to collect specimens on many later Gardens between Joseph Hooker and a number of these British expeditions of exploration. The botanical samples colonial correspondents. The letters of the Tasmanians from official government expeditions were usually sent to William Archer (1820–1874) and Ronald Campbell Kew Gardens, and remained the property of the Admiralty. Gunn (1808–1881), and New Zealander William Colenso As Stevens noted: “When the Botanic Gardens at Kew were (1811–1899) both to and from the Hookers illustrate the established in 1841, it was with the express understanding reasons behind his need to use their information (Archer by the government that they should be the botanical centre 1847–1874, Burns & Skemp 1961, Endersby 2001, 2008a). of the British Empire and coordinate its botanical activities” It was to these three colonial correspondents that Hooker (Stevens 1997, p. 356). It was acknowledged that the naval dedicated two of the volumes of his Antarctic research: officers “would have the sole right, apart from the captain, Flora Tasmaniae (Hooker 1860) to Archer and Gunn) and to produce an Admiralty supported publication of scientific Flora Novae Zelandiae (to Colenso). Although Hooker also observations” (McCalman 2009, p. 86). One such naval dedicated Flora Novae Zelandiae (Hooker 1853) to Andrew officer wanting to publish scientific observations from a 34 Anita Hansen voyage was Joseph Dalton Hooker, who had been the the scientific community for its ministration. This emphasis assistant surgeon on the 1839–1843 James Ross Clarke on mutual obligation between science and the nation made Antarctic expedition. government both the most appealing and the most obvious reservoir of patronage among available sources”. Finally, and perhaps most critically, Hooker also had to JOSEPH HOOKER AND PHILOSOPHICAL institute and enforce a belief that the metropolitan centre, BOTANY and only the metropolitan centre, had the necessary means and authority to describe and name new species of plants. Joseph Dalton Hooker was the second son of William He believed the correspondents at the colonial periphery Jackson Hooker, Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow could only be familiar with their own environment, and University, and later director of Kew Gardens. From an early did not have the global view of the metropolitan botanist. age Hooker had developed a passion for natural history, and That is, they could not have the expertise of the scientist his father wrote to one of his Tasmanian collectors, Ronald who had access to a herbarium that contained specimens Campbell Gunn, “… my second son [Joseph] him being from across the world; “a naturalist’s access to living plants, already a very respectable Botanist, has begun Entomology” although a valuable card to hold, was not as valuable as (Hooker 1822). In many of his following letters Sir William access to unlimited herbarium specimens—that was the asked for insect specimens for Joseph, as well as botanical trump. The metropolitan botanist was able to control the specimens for his own herbarium. colonial and the provincial” (Stevens 1997). However, as As he grew, Joseph Hooker sought to make his name as Endersby (2008a, p. 312) commented about his recent a botanist. He saw it almost as his right (Bellon 2001), and book: “One reason this book is called Imperial Nature he soon realised that to accomplish his aim of botanical is that Britain’s political and economic empire provided fame, he needed to accompany one of the great voyages of crucial opportunities for men like Hooker to build careers; discovery, to reach some areas that were relatively unexplored without the empire, men like Hooker, Huxley, Darwin, and where hopefully interesting new plants could be found. The Wallace would have had very limited access to the natural young Joseph Hooker was advised to study medicine to world beyond Britain’s shores”. Hooker could only hold enable him to join the James Clark Ross Antarctic expedition the “trump card” because it had been dealt to him by the of 1839 as few positions as naturalist were available. He colonial correspondents. Access to the natural world would was employed as assistant surgeon on the expedition, not not have been enough to establish a career; there also had the position he had hoped for, but, as Hooker himself to be the right to sole use of that natural history. noted when writing to his father regarding his necessity to look for paid work to pursue this interest, “I am not independent, and must not be too proud: if I cannot be THE NETWORK OF CORRESPONDENTS: a naturalist with a fortune, I must not be too vain to take TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND honorable compensation for my trouble” (Huxley 1918, p. 597). Upon his return to England in 1843, Hooker Joseph Hooker visited Tasmania and New Zealand during desperately needed to find paid employment, and in this his Antarctic expedition of 1839–1843. While on these visits he was aided by his father, now Director of Kew Gardens, he met and worked with two of his father’s correspondents, who lobbied his many influential friends to arrange for Ronald Campbell Gunn in Tasmania, and William Colenso Joseph to be employed there as Assistant Director. This in New Zealand. Through their contact with Gunn, the and a government grant of £1000 towards the publication Hookers would also later correspond with the Tasmanian- of his research from the Antarctic voyage would allow him born William Archer.
Recommended publications
  • Disciplinary Culture
    Disciplinary Culture: Artillery, Sound, and Science in Woolwich, 1800–1850 Simon Werrett This article explores connections between science, music, and the military in London in the first decades of the nineteenth century.1 Rather than look for applications of music or sound in war, it considers some techniques common to these fields, exemplified in practices involving the pendulum as an instrument of regulation. The article begins by exploring the rise of military music in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and then compares elements of this musical culture to scientific transformations during 1 For broad relations between music and science in this period, see: Myles Jackson, Harmonious Triads: Physicians, Musicians, and Instrument Makers in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006); Alexandra Hui, The Psychophysical Ear: Musical Experiments, Experimental Sounds, 1840–1910 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012); Emily I. Dolan and John Tresch, “‘A Sublime Invasion’: Meyerbeer, Balzac, and the Opera Machine,” Opera Quarterly 27 (2011), 4–31; Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900–1933 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004). On science and war in the Napoleonic period, see for example: Simon Werrett, “William Congreve’s Rational Rockets,” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 63 (2009), 35–56; on sound as a weapon, Roland Wittje, “The Electrical Imagination: Sound Analogies, Equivalent Circuits, and the Rise of Electroacoustics, 1863–1939,” Osiris 28 (2013), 40–63, here 55; Cyrus C. M. Mody, “Conversions: Sound and Sight, Military and Civilian,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, eds. Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • La Trobeana Is Kindly Sponsored by Mr Peter Lovell Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants
    LAA TTROBEANAROBEANA Journal of the C. J. La Trobe Society Inc. Journal ofVol.11, the No.C. J. 3, LaNovember Trobe 2012Society Inc. ISSN 1447-4026 Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2007 ISSN 1447-4026 La Trobeana is kindly sponsored by Mr Peter Lovell LOVEll CHEN ARCHITECTS & HERITAGE CONSULTANTS Lovell Chen Pty Ltd, Level 5, 176 Wellington Pde, East Melbourne 3002, Australia Tel: +61 (0)3 9667 0800 Fax: +61 (0)3 9416 1818 Email [email protected] ABN 20 005 803 494 Contents 4 Introduction 37 Jane Wilson A Word from the President Research Report: Charles La Trobe’s contribution to the establishment of the 5 Adrienne E. Clarke Horticultural Gardens at Burnley A Message from the Chancellor of La Trobe University 39 Susan Priestley Crises of 1852 for Lieutenant-Governor Tributes La Trobe, Captain William Dugdale and La Trobeana Henrietta Augusta Davies Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc. Dr Brian La Trobe Vol. 11, No 3, November 2012. 6 Tim Gatehouse 46 Dr Jean McCaughey The Turkish La Trobe: The career of ISSN 1447-4026 7 Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, the Editorial Committee 8 Mr Bruce Nixon Sultan’s advisor at the Ottoman Court Loreen Chambers (Hon Editor) Helen Armstrong Articles 54 Roz Greenwood Dianne Reilly Book Review: The French Closet by Robyn Riddett 9 R.W. Home Alison Anderson Burgess La Trobe’s ‘honest looking German’: Designed by Ferdinand Mueller and the botanical Reports and Notices Michael Owen [email protected] exploration of gold-rush Victoria Helen Botham For contributions and subscriptions enquiries contact: 56 Anna Murphy Anniversary of the Death of The Honorary Secretary: Dr Dianne Reilly AM 17 The C.
    [Show full text]
  • Natural Selection: Charles Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace
    Search | Glossary | Home << previous | next > > Natural Selection: Charles Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace The genius of Darwin (left), the way in which he suddenly turned all of biology upside down in 1859 with the publication of the Origin of Species , can sometimes give the misleading impression that the theory of evolution sprang from his forehead fully formed without any precedent in scientific history. But as earlier chapters in this history have shown, the raw material for Darwin's theory had been known for decades. Geologists and paleontologists had made a compelling case that life had been on Earth for a long time, that it had changed over that time, and that many species had become extinct. At the same time, embryologists and other naturalists studying living animals in the early 1800s had discovered, sometimes unwittingly, much of the A visit to the Galapagos Islands in 1835 helped Darwin best evidence for Darwin's formulate his ideas on natural selection. He found theory. several species of finch adapted to different environmental niches. The finches also differed in beak shape, food source, and how food was captured. Pre-Darwinian ideas about evolution It was Darwin's genius both to show how all this evidence favored the evolution of species from a common ancestor and to offer a plausible mechanism by which life might evolve. Lamarck and others had promoted evolutionary theories, but in order to explain just how life changed, they depended on speculation. Typically, they claimed that evolution was guided by some long-term trend. Lamarck, for example, thought that life strove over time to rise from simple single-celled forms to complex ones.
    [Show full text]
  • The Correspondence of Julius Haast and Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1861-1886
    The Correspondence of Julius Haast and Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1861-1886 Sascha Nolden, Simon Nathan & Esme Mildenhall Geoscience Society of New Zealand miscellaneous publication 133H November 2013 Published by the Geoscience Society of New Zealand Inc, 2013 Information on the Society and its publications is given at www.gsnz.org.nz © Copyright Simon Nathan & Sascha Nolden, 2013 Geoscience Society of New Zealand miscellaneous publication 133H ISBN 978-1-877480-29-4 ISSN 2230-4495 (Online) ISSN 2230-4487 (Print) We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust which has provided financial support for this project. This document is available as a PDF file that can be downloaded from the Geoscience Society website at: http://www.gsnz.org.nz/information/misc-series-i-49.html Bibliographic Reference Nolden, S.; Nathan, S.; Mildenhall, E. 2013: The Correspondence of Julius Haast and Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1861-1886. Geoscience Society of New Zealand miscellaneous publication 133H. 219 pages. The Correspondence of Julius Haast and Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1861-1886 CONTENTS Introduction 3 The Sumner Cave controversy Sources of the Haast-Hooker correspondence Transcription and presentation of the letters Acknowledgements References Calendar of Letters 8 Transcriptions of the Haast-Hooker letters 12 Appendix 1: Undated letter (fragment), ca 1867 208 Appendix 2: Obituary for Sir Julius von Haast 209 Appendix 3: Biographical register of names mentioned in the correspondence 213 Figures Figure 1: Photographs
    [Show full text]
  • Bon Voyage? 250 Years Exploring the Natural World SHNH Summer
    Bon Voyage? 250 Years Exploring the Natural World SHNH summer meeting and AGM in association with the BOC World Museum Liverpool Thursday 14th and Friday 15th June 2018 Abstracts Thursday 14th June Jordan Goodman, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London In the Wake of Cook? Joseph Banks and His ‘Favorite Projects’ James Cook’s three Pacific voyages spanned the years from 1768 to 1780. These were the first British voyages of exploration in which natural history collecting formed an integral part. Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander were responsible for the collection on the first voyage, HMS Endeavour, between 1768 and 1771; Johann and Georg Forster, collected on the second voyage, HMS Resolution, between 1772 and 1775; and David Nelson continued the tradition on the third voyage, HMS Resolution, from 1776 to 1780. Though Cook’s first voyage brought Banks immense fame, it was the third voyage that initiated a new kind of botanical collecting which he practised for the rest of his life. He called it his ‘Favorite Project’, and it consisted of supplying the royal garden at Kew with living plants from across the globe, to make it the finest botanical collection in the world. Banks appointed David Nelson, a Kew gardener, to collect on Cook’s third voyage. Not only would the King’s garden benefit from a supply of exotic living plants, but the gardeners Banks sent out to collect them would also learn how best to keep the plants alive at sea, for long periods of time and through many different climatic conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Tasmanian Heritage Register Entry
    Tasmanian Heritage Register Datasheet 134 Macquarie Street (GPO Box 618) Hobart Tasmania 7001 Phone: 1300 850 332 (local call cost) Email: [email protected] Web: www.heritage.tas.gov.au Name: Cambria THR ID Number: 12021 Status: Provisionally Registered Municipality: Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council Tier: State Location Addresses Title References Property Id 13566 Tasman HWY, Swansea 7190 TAS 148001/1 3362795 13569 Tasman HWY, Swansea 7190 TAS 104887/4 5280910 Lot 1 Tasman HWY, Swansea 7190 TAS 251306/1 3362891 Front elevation of the Rear elevation of the Cambria main house Interior, main house, main house, Cambria main house, Cambria with pinetum Cambria DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2015 Restored brick and Cobbled stable floor, Shearing shed, Oyster Bay pine stone stable building, Cambria Cambria posts, barn, Cambria Cambria DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 Nut Walk, Cambria Main house, Redcliffe Red Banks and the Inner paddocks and Meredith River from dividing hedgerows, DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2020 Cambria Cambria DPIPWE 2019 DPIPWE 2019 Setting: The house at Cambria stands above the steep bank of the Meredith River near Swansea on the East Coast, Wednesday, February 17, 2021 Page 1 of 13 commanding a view of Oyster Bay and Schouten Island. It shares the riverine environment with the house at Red Banks (THR#12020), only about 200 metres away on the Meredith’s opposite bank. The river widens into a shallow estuary below the Cambria house. The surrounding coastal land is open as a result of thousands of years of Aboriginal use of fire for land management—followed by almost two centuries of European farming.
    [Show full text]
  • “A Valuable Monument of Mathematical Genius”\Thanksmark T1: the Ladies' Diary (1704–1840)
    Historia Mathematica 36 (2009) 10–47 www.elsevier.com/locate/yhmat “A valuable monument of mathematical genius” ✩: The Ladies’ Diary (1704–1840) Joe Albree ∗, Scott H. Brown Auburn University, Montgomery, USA Available online 24 December 2008 Abstract Our purpose is to view the mathematical contribution of The Ladies’ Diary as a whole. We shall range from the state of mathe- matics in England at the beginning of the 18th century to the transformations of the mathematics that was published in The Diary over 134 years, including the leading role The Ladies’ Diary played in the early development of British mathematics periodicals, to finally an account of how progress in mathematics and its journals began to overtake The Diary in Victorian Britain. © 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc. Résumé Notre but est de voir la contribution mathématique du Journal de Lady en masse. Nous varierons de l’état de mathématiques en Angleterre au début du dix-huitième siècle aux transformations des mathématiques qui a été publié dans le Journal plus de 134 ans, en incluant le principal rôle le Journal de Lady joué dans le premier développement de périodiques de mathématiques britanniques, à finalement un compte de comment le progrès dans les mathématiques et ses journaux a commencé à dépasser le Journal dans l’Homme de l’époque victorienne la Grande-Bretagne. © 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc. Keywords: 18th century; 19th century; Other institutions and academies; Bibliographic studies 1. Introduction Arithmetical Questions are as entertaining and delightful as any other Subject whatever, they are no other than Enigmas, to be solved by Numbers; .
    [Show full text]
  • List of Honorary Fellows
    LIST OF HONORARY FELLOWS. 847 LIST OF HONORARY FELLOWS .110 AT MARCH 1897. His Royal Highness The PRINCE OF WALES. FOREIGNERS (LIMITED TO THIRTY-SIX BY LAW X.). Elected. 495 1897 Alexander Agassiz, Cambridge (Mass.). 1897 E.-H. Amagat, Paris. 1889 Marcellin Pierre Eugene Berthelot, Paris. 1895 Ludwig Boltzmann, Vienna. 1864 Rohert Wilhelm Bunsen, Heidelberg. 1897 Stanislao Cannizzaro, Rome, 1883 Luigi Cremona, Rome. 1877 Carl Gegenbaur, Heidelberg, 1888 Ernst Haeckel, Jena. 1883 Julius Hann, Vienna. 1884 Charles Hermite, Paris. 1879 Jules Janssen, Paris, 1864 Alhert von Kblliker, Wilrzhurg. 1864 Rudolph Leuckart, Leipzig, 1897 Gabriel Lippmann, Paris. 1895 fileuthere-6lie-Nicolas Mascart, Paris. 1888 Demetrius Ivanovich Mendel6ef, St Petersburg. 1895 Carl Menger, Vienna. 1886 Alphonse Milne-Edwards Paris. 1864 Theodore Mommsen, Berlin. 1897 Fridtjof Nansen, Christiania. 1881 Simon Newcomb, Washington. 1895 Max von Pettenkofer, Munich. 1895 Jules Henri Poincare, Paris. 1889 Georg Hermann Quincke, Heidelberg. 1886 Alphonse Renard, Ghent. 1897 Ferdinand von Ricbthofen, Berlin. 1897 Henry A. Rowland, Baltimore. 1897 Giovanni V. Schiaparelli, Milan, 1881 Johannes Iapetus Smith Steenstrup, Copenhagen. 1878 Otto Wilhelm Strove, St Petersburg. 1886 Tobias Robert Thaten, Upsala. 1874 Otto Torell, Lund. 1868 Rudolph Yirchow, Berlin. 1892 Gustav Wiedemann, Leipzig. 1897 Ferdinand Zirkel, Leipzig. Total, 36. 848 LIST OF HONORARY FELLOWS. BRITISH SUBJECTS (LIMITED TO TWENTY BY LAW x.). Elected. 1889 Sir Robert Stawell Ball, Kt., LL.D., F.R.S., M.R.I. A., Lowndean, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge 1897 The Very Rev. John Caird, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the Uni- versity of Glasgow, Glasgow. 1892 Colonel Alexander Ross Clarke, C.B., R.E., F.R.S., Redhill, Surrey 1897 George Howard Darwin, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., Plumian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
    [Show full text]
  • Endrés As an Illustrator
    chapter∑ 4 Endrés as an illustrator Franco Pupulin According to the definition provided by Botanical Gardens Conservation International, “the main goal of botanical illustration is not art, but scientific accuracy”. A botanical illustrator must portray a plant with enough precision and detail for it to be recognized and distinguished from another species, and the need for exactness is what fundamentally differentiates botanical illustration from more general flower painting. If, traditionally, the best botanical illustrators try to understand the structure of plants and to communicate that in an aesthetically pleasing manner, combining science and art, this was probably not the concern of Auguste R. Endrés when preparing his orchid illustrations in Costa Rica. He had, however, a remarkable artistic talent, and his activity was influenced by the great tradition of orchid painting. The results of his illustration work not only attain the highest levels of botanical accuracy, but set a new standard in orchid art and science. As we will see, only because his masterful plates were lost among the forgotten materials of Reichenbach’s venomous legacy, was Endrés’ work prevented from having a major influence on the discipline of botanical illustration. The golden age of botanical illustration in Europe Beginning in the 17th century, and more frequently during the Enlightenment of the 18th Century, European artists and scientists undertook major projects for collecting and cataloguing nature in its amazing variety. 1613 saw the publication of the Hortus Eystettensis1 (literally the Garden of Eichstätt), a landmark work in the history of botanical art and one of the greatest botanical sets ever created.
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Dalton Hooker
    OS E P H DA LTO N OO KE F R , S j H R, . P I O N E E R S O F P R O G R E SS M E N O F SC I E N C E 801 0 11 81! S . CHAP MAN M.A D . , . S C., F . R .S . JO S E P H D A L T O N H O O K E R 0 M S C B F. M D ET . R. , . , . , C. P F B W c D F R O O ER S S. ROF. , . , . RB OIUB P RO FES SO R 0? m m In THE UNIVERS ITY O F GLASGOW L O N D O N S O C I E T Y F O R P R O M O T I N G C H R I S T I A N K N O W L E D G E NEW YORK : TH E MA CMILLAN COMPANY TE N T CON S . HIS T O RICAL IN T Riov-UCTJON k‘ B IRTH AND EDUCATION FO REI G N TRA V E L A u T HOR smE ' ' H o oRl S P DSI fl’ IO N A s A MA N O R S clE Nc E DA TES RE LATI NG TO THE O FRI EIA-L A N D S CIE N TI FI C; O I! S I R JO SEP H H OOKER P ORTRAI TS BJB LlO GRAPHY CHAPTER I . H I STO R I CAL I NTRO DUCTI O N .
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Hooker Takes a "Fixed Post": Transmutation And
    Joseph Hooker Takes a "Fixed Post": Transmutation and the "Present Unsatisfactory State of Systematic Botany", 1844-1860 Author(s): Richard Bellon Source: Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 1-39 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4331989 Accessed: 24-05-2018 19:09 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Biology This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Thu, 24 May 2018 19:09:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of the History of Biology (2006) 39: 1-39 ? Springer 2006 DOI 10.007/sI 0739-004-3800-x Joseph Hooker Takes a "Fixed Post": Transmutation and the "Present Unsatisfactory State of Systematic Botany", 18 441860 RICHARD BELLON Lyman Briggs School Michigan State University E-30 Holmes Hall East Lansing, MI 48825 USA E-mail: hellonr(@.~msu.edu Abstract. Joseph Hooker first learned that Charles Darwin believed in the transmuta- tion of species in 1844. For the next 14 years, Hooker remained a "nonconsenter" to Darwin's views, resolving to keep the question of species origin "subservient to Botany instead of Botany to it, as must be the true relation." Hooker placed particular emphasis on the need for any theory of species origin to support the broad taxonomic delimitation of species, a highly contentious issue.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Affinities: the Natural Method and Anomalous Plants in the Nineteenth Century Lorelai Kury
    HoST - Journal of History of Science and Technology Vol. 15, no. 1, June 2021, pp. 39-70 10.2478/host-2021-0003 SPECIAL ISSUE GLOBAL FLORA: MASTERING EXOTIC PLANTS (EIGHTEENTH—NINETEENTH CENTURIES) Global Affinities: The Natural Method and Anomalous Plants in the Nineteenth Century Lorelai Kury Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Brazil [email protected] Sara Albuquerque IHC-Nova FCSH, Pólo Universidade de Évora, Portugal [email protected] Abstract: Approaching from an analysis of the work of Robert Brown (1773-1858) and Friedrich Welwitsch (1806-1872) on Rafflesiaand Welwitschia, this article explores how the “natural method” became a tool for understanding extra-European flora in the nineteenth century. As botanists worked to detect “hidden affinities” between plants that would enable them to identify the so-called natural families to which even anomalous species belonged, they relied on comparison as their basic methodological procedure, making it essential for them to have access to collections. In their scientific writings, professional botanists tended to steer clear of any emphasis on plant exoticism. While botany engaged in dialogue with various types of approaches, the field essentially normalized the exotic. The article’s exploration of the hermetic style of scientific texts and the way botanists incorporated illustrators’ work sheds light on the complexity of the spaces where natural history was done, in a context where plants were circulating from around the globe. Keywords: Rafflesia; Welwitschia; Robert Brown; natural method; exoticism © 2021 Lorelai Kury, Sara Albuquerque. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
    [Show full text]