Hunt Institute Staff Have Collected and Indexed Portraits of and Biographical Information About Individuals Involved in the Plant Sciences
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Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Vol. 26, No. 2 Bulletin Fall 2014 of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation Inside Welcome to www.huntbotanical.org 4 Dangerous Beauty 4 2015 Associates Home page for our redesigned Web site at its new URL. on display program See story on page 9. 4 Benjamin Minge 4 In Memoriam Duggar papers Walter H. Hodge News from the Art Department Dangerous Beauty opens The exhibition Dangerous Beauty: appendages found on some plants. example by Marilena Pistoia (below Thorns, Spines and Prickles began, for Thorns are modified stems, spines are left) beautifully illustrates the contrast me, with a fascination with thistles, modified leaves, and prickles differ in between delicate pink and white flower the pesky but beautiful weed I grew that they emerge from the epidermis, and very sharp thorn, shiny and waxy- up hating in the fields near my home mesophyll or cortex of the plant. Not green like the stem. in Colorado. These weeds would take to be overlooked, hairs are superficial, over the fields, making them impossible cellular structures that emerge from In one of our spiny examples, a to walk through without injury, but I the epidermis and also can be powerful Dipsacus, or teasel, nearly reaches off couldn’t help loving the rich purple defensive tools. I was again fascinated the wall to grab the viewer with its of the flower and the softness of the to discover the old adage is wrong; roses elongated bracts as depicted in this downy seeds. Coming to Carnegie do NOT have thorns at all but instead coiled, dried plant stage by Celia Mellon, where the Scottish thistle have prickles. We found such a great Crampton (below center). It is also in is our crest, and the Hunt Institute, variety in the plants possessing thorns, this dried stage when the Fuller’s where we have many varieties of spines, prickles or combinations therein teasel, Dipsacus fullonum Linnaeus, thistle represented in so many different that the hard part was narrowing the has been used in the textile industry. ways, my obsession grew. After noting selection to a manageable size. With Historically, the dried flower heads my commenting and note taking on this knowledge in mind, we began to were attached to spindles or wheels and countless jagger-covered plants in our select artworks that best demonstrated used as a comb for cleaning and raising Art collection, Curator of Art Lugene the variety among these three defensive the nap on fabrics, particularly wool. Bruno suggested I might have an structures and the plants they protect. This process was later mechanized, exhibition on my hands, and we got replacing the dried teasel with a metal to work. Among the genera included, Citrus is a card. Some people still prefer the teasel particularly beautiful example of what head, however, as it is gentler and more In researching artworks and plants true thorns can look like. We chose to likely to break itself than damage the to include in this exhibition, I was include Citrus most often cultivated cloth should it encounter resistance. fascinated to learn so many new facts for their fruits and which have very about plant morphology. Chief among aromatic flowers, two aspects for which Going back to my original shocking those new facts is the detail that thorns, protection would be vital. Sometimes discovery, this example of Rosa by Petr spines and prickles are not all the older plants of this genus produce fewer Liska (below right) depicts the delicate, same thing. In the most basic sense, thorns as they grow larger and become hair-like prickles present on some thorns, spines and prickles can all refer less vulnerable to predators, others species. Prickles themselves can be quite to the sharp, stiff, woody defensive maintain their thorns for life. This varied, and Rosa is home to over one 2 Bull. Hunt Inst. Bot. Doc. 26(2), Fall 2014 hundred species; together this provides Fouquieria, Gleditsia, Pachypodium, to humans throughout history are for an incredibly varied protective and Rosa, Ribes, Rubus, Solanum and Urtica. Momordica charantia Linnaeus, Prunus adaptive range of prickles. Some, as in spinosa Linnaeus, Oenocarpus bataua Rosa acicularis Lindley, which is also Artists represented are Marie Angel; Martius and Agave americana Linnaeus. known as prickley rose, have stems Diana Carmichael; Louis Claude de densely covered in thin, straight, hair- Chastillon; Celia Crampton; Anne Upcoming exhibitions like prickles. Others, as in Rosa canina Ophelia Todd Dowden; Raymond Opening on 19 March 2015, Elements Linnaeus and many of the modern Dowden; Georg Dionys Ehret; includes drawings and watercolors of cultivated varieties like Rosa ×centifolia Henry Evans; Alejandro Gavriloff; bird nests with a focus on the natural Linnaeus, have larger, often hooked, Lucretia Hamilton; Charlotte Hannan; and man-made materials incorporated woody prickles. Some species of Rosa Jeanne Russell Janish; Christabel into these architectural structures. Linnaeus have vestigial prickles with King; Carl Ignaz Leopold Kny; Paul Photographs of forest understory will no sharp points, and others may not Landacre; Dorika Leyniers de Buyst; transport the viewer between the have any prickles at all. Chrissie Lightfoot; Petr Liska; Stanley landscape and the ephemeral artifacts Maltzman; Yoshikaru Matsumura; that signify the remains of a cycle We were very lucky to have one of Roderick McEwen; Joan McGann; Jeni of building, incubating, nesting and our included artists, Jeni Neale, come Neale; Gunnar Normann; Marilena fledging. The featured artists are Sue all the way from England to attend Pistoia; Frantisek Procházka; Pierre- Abramson, Wendy Brockman, David the exhibition opening. Jeni was kind Joseph Redouté; Elizabeth Rice; Morrison and Kate Nessler. Also enough to meet many of our guests Nicolas Robert; Christian Schkuhr; included is a selection of bird nests on at the opening reception, and her Geraldine King Tam; Gesina B. loan from the Carnegie Museum of watercolor on paper of Silvanberry Threlkeld; Unknown artist, Torner Natural History. Our annual Open (Rubus Linnaeus, Rosaceae) was a Collection of Sessé & Mociño Biological House will be held on 28 June in favorite for many. She was able to see Illustrations; Unknown artist, USDA conjunction with the spring exhibition quite a few artworks and books while Forest Service Collection; Frederick and will include a gallery tour and talk visiting with us, as well as take in the Andrews Walpole. A selection of rare related to the exhibition. sights of the city. Stephanie Lind and books from the Hunt Institute Library Gabe Tilove at Phipps Conservatory collection also is included in this The Mysterious Nature of Fungi opens were especially helpful in giving Jeni exhibition. on 17 September 2015 and features a tour of the gardens. artworks and books that illustrate the Cabinet of curiosities myths and misconceptions and the Genera included in this exhibition are Also on display in the current Cabinet scientific and avocational inquiries that Acacia, Astrophytum, Atractylis, Berberis, of curiosities in the lobby is Dangerous have furthered our understanding of Borzicactus, Bougainvillea, Calicotome, Utility, curated by Assistant Librarian these fascinating organisms. Carduus, Carlina, Cereus, Cirsium, Jeannette McDevitt. Her small sample Citrus, Crataegus, Cynara, Datura, of the world’s thorny, prickly and — Carrie Roy, Assistant Curator of Art Dipsacus, Echinocactus, Euphorbia, spiny plants that have proven useful Page 2, left, Citron: Citrus medica [Citrus medica Linnaeus, Rutaceae], watercolor on paper by Marilena Pistoia, 35 × 25.5 cm, for Laura Peroni, Il Linguaggio del Fiori (Milan, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1984, p. 53), HI Art accession no. 6773.20, © 1984 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, All rights reserved. Page 2, center, Teasel [Dipsacus Linnaeus, Dipsacaceae], watercolor on paper by Celia Crampton, 2003, 37 × 28 cm, HI Art accession no. 7586, © 2003 Celia Crampton, All rights reserved. Page 2, right, Rosa canina L. [Rosa Linnaeus, Rosaceae], watercolor on paper by Petr Liska, 1981, 24 × 16.5 cm, HI Art accession no. 6463, © 1981 Petr Liska, All rights reserved. Page 3, left, artist Jeni Neale, studying Gloxinia L’Héritier, Gesneriaceae, a watercolor on paper in an album by Augusta Innes Withers (ca.1793–1860), 24.5 × 19.5 cm, HI Art accession no. 0857.49, Hunt Institute reading room, 19 September 2014, photograph by Lugene B. Bruno. Bull. Hunt Inst. Bot. Doc. 26(2), Fall 2014 3 Back Shelf Tales from the Archives Benjamin Minge Duggar (1872–1956) Benjamin Minge Duggar was dedicated to both the professional and personal spheres of his life. Though most widely known for his 1909 book Fungous Diseases of Plants (New York, Ginn) and his 1945 discovery of Chlortetracycline, the first antibiotic in the tetracycline family, Duggar conducted research in multiple disciplines of the biological and natural sciences during a career spanning six decades. Born in Gallion, Alabama in 1872, Duggar was the fourth of six sons born to Margaret Louisa Minge and Reuben Henry Duggar, a physician and former surgeon for the Confederate Army. Duggar showed intellectual promise from an early age and enrolled at the University of Alabama at the age of fifteen. He Letter from Benjamin Minge Duggar (1872–1956) to Marie L. Robertson (1874–1922), later transferred to the Mississippi 14 September 1901, HI Archives Benjamin Minge Duggar collection no. 113. Agricultural and Mechanical College, where he received his B.S. with honors in 1891 at age 19. He then received an which researchers can trace the specific interest are materials from M.S. from the Alabama Polytechnic development of his academic career, the Confederate Army regarding Institute at Auburn in 1892, a B.A. and research interests and family life. Reuben’s service as an Army surgeon M.A. from Harvard University in 1894 The majority of the collection is and letters from Duggar’s brothers. The and 1895, respectively, and a Ph.D.