Life and Work of an Indian Botanist (1904–1966) of the 20Th Century
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PERSONAL NEWS Life and work of an Indian botanist (1904–1966) of the 20th century Ramesh Maheshwari In an e-mail dated 21 November 2010, angiosperms and the gymnosperms pro- have written remembrance articles on P. Balaram said ‘It would be wonderful duce seeds, whereas the seeds in the for- him in this very journal5–8. He gave talks to have a scholarly, yet personal, biogra- mer are enclosed inside the ovary (e.g. and wrote newspaper articles on various phy of your father’. Though it seemed mango, papaya), the seeds in the latter topics in botany. He gave talks on topics odd to write a biography of one’s father, are not, as for example, the cycads and such as the life and work of Sir J. C. nonetheless here was an opportunity to the pines. Rather, in the latter group of Bose, Nature or Nurture? Among the review and learn about a discipline of plants the seeds are borne on the surface popular articles written by him were botany that is assuming increasing of scales, not enclosed inside the fruit. ‘The plants that India gave to the world’, importance for generating the next- The latter book was to deal with the ‘What seeds must be preserved in the generation inter-generic hybrid crops morphology of the reproductive structure event life is destroyed by a holocaust?’, producing high-quality seeds by over- and seed development in species of Gym- ‘Botany in ancient India’, ‘Plants, history coming incompatibility barriers between nosperms, chiefly the species found in and politics’. He was a complete bota- parents. Having grown up in P. Mahesh- the Himalayan mountain ranges. Unfor- nist. wari (hereafter PM) household, I had the tunately this work remained unpublished fortune of some plant embryology rubbed as PM died a couple of weeks prior to the onto me although I went on to specialize submission of the manuscript to the pub- Professional development differently. Googling led to an article by lisher. PM himself1 published in Nature way Tall, broad-shouldered, always well- PM was born in 1904 in Jaipur, Raja- back in 1952. This article tells about a dressed and generally sporting a stern sthan, where his father was an office sensational claim made by a Russian look, PM worked from pre-dawn to sun- superintendent in the SMS Medical Col- agricultural botanist of conversion of seeds set all seven days in the week, at home or lege. His father had wished that his only of one plant species into that of another in his office (Figure 1) in the Botany surviving son would enter the medical species merely by a change in environ- Department of Delhi University. One of profession. However, since PM wore ment (temperature)2. his former students described him as a thick glasses, he was denied admission in A voracious reader, a hard worker and ‘karmayogi’4. Though a strict disciplinar- the medical programme. PM took up a master in laboratory skills with scien- ian, PM was a kind-hearted person who botany instead. Who mentored him in tific temper, the insight and ability to enjoyed telling jokes and humorous an- specializing in plant embryology is not identify promising research topics, PM ecdotes. His large personal library com- known. Some of his clan was seed or was a multitasker and a stickler for punc- prised of original and rare titles acquired grain merchants; perhaps the seeds tuality. Although always immersed in during his several visits abroad. The col- sprouting during the monsoon rains work, he was generous with his time for lection of books and reprints served as a aroused his curiosity to dissect the seeds any research worker who wished to show valuable resource not just for his own re- to find out which parts emerge and grow and tell microscopic observations. He search students, but also for out-of- as the root and the shoot axes. After a was the founder-editor of an interna- station faculty and students from other D Sc from the Ewing Christian College tional journal, Phytomorphology; served parts of India in need to access to the lit- in Allahabad, under an American mis- on the editorial boards of some interna- erature. Some of his former students sionary teacher Dr Winfield Dudgeon, tional journals; edited biology textbooks for the higher secondary students; cor- rected theses and manuscripts of his Ph D students; frequently accompanied res- earch students on botanical forays; con- tributed articles for BOTANICA – an in- house journal of the Delhi University Botanical Society – that he had founded; organized national and international symposia; workshops for high-school biology teachers; trained Ph D students in all-round abilities; and when called upon to do so advised the Government on science policy matters; and played host to out-of-station colleagues and visi- tors at his home. Following the publica- tion in 1950 of his highly successful 3 Figure 1. P. Maheshwari at about 1960 in his office room in Delhi University. A major book on embryology of angiosperms , effort was collection of scholastic reference material through postal exchange with sci- PM was working on his second book, entists. These were classified and stored in reprint boxes in the background. From Curr. Morphology of Gymnosperms. Both the Sci., 2004, 87, 1738. CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013 527 PERSONAL NEWS PM taught botanical disciplines at the resulting in seed formation. Stated thus laboratory for histochemical processing universities in Agra, Lucknow and Alla- the ‘book’ created an entire new field of and microscopic examination of embryo- habad, where he established himself as enquiry with focus on the fine events in logical oddities. This would allow a an innovative and committed teacher seed development. The book met with steady publication of papers, earn the re- who inspired and aroused curiosity of immediate success throughout the world, search workers recognition, and give students. He was a born teacher. Using including USSR, where it was quickly them a feeling of accomplishment lead- the reverse psychology method he gave translated into Russian, as Embriologia ing to growth of science in general and popular talks such as ‘How to give a pokritocemmenikh rastenii or the ‘Em- botany in particular. PM and/or his poor lecture?’, ‘How to write a research bryology of the covered seeded plants’. research students undertook regular for- paper for outright rejection by the jour- The ‘covered seeded plants’ are the ays for collection of botanicals and their nal’ and the ‘Ten commandments for bad Angiosperms in the original book title. processing in the laboratory. Careful writing’. These were among the most examination and documentation of hilarious talks in the department. He embryological features led to the discov- wrote articles on a variety of botanical Impact of the ‘book’ ery of different types of embryo sacs, topics for BOTANICA under the pseudo- variations in the number and the distribu- name IDLER. Publishing a book may seem a small tion of nuclei in them, intercarpellary thing, but PM’s book had wide implica- pollen grains, multiple embryos, modi- tions. It opened an entire new field of re- fied suspensor cells, endosperm haus- A highly cited textbook search that investigated the correlations toria, polyembryony and apomictic between sex in plants and seed develop- plants, enabling observations to be pub- Since during PM’s early days the scien- ment. In 1980, in an editorial Eugene lished in high-ranking journals (see tific literature was almost wholly in Garfield (ISI) ranked the book as among Selected bibliography). He investigated German, there was an acute need of sci- the 20 biology texts most quoted in the embryological features of doubtful taxa entific literature in English for the re- century! With the current emphasis on and showed that in conjunction with search workers. Recognizing this, with reproductive structures, the last ten years morphology, and anatomy, embryology the aim of bringing out a textbook on have seen resurgence in plant embryol- could be useful in identification of taxa plant embryology in English, at the age ogy using the tools of modern molecular and phylogeny of taxa with uncertain of 34 PM undertook visits to Kiel and biology. PM’s book continues to be cited affinities. Vienna where he became fluent in Ger- more than 50 years after its publication. The plant embryo develops rapidly fol- man and worked with German experts. A discipline which has simple research lowing fertilization of the egg cell and He discussed the scope of embryology requirements is likely to take roots and becomes differentiated into a suspensor and its interfaces with cytology, taxon- flourish in India where the facilities for cell and conspicuous cotyledon. It prompts omy, genetics and plant physiology. Dur- research are rudimentary or even non- how a single fertilized egg cell is con- ing 1945–1947, he worked at Harvard existent, Plant embryology offered a verted into a mass of cells organized into University in Cambridge. He visited sev- field of enquiry in which India could a basal and apical pole that differentiate eral laboratories in USA, met a number become a leader. With its diversity of into the root and the shoot? This is the of botanists, did intensive library work exotic plants, modest requirements of a fundamental problem of polarity or the for rare literature and finalized the manu- microtome for serial sectioning of wax- establishment of a basal and an apical script for publication by the McGraw- embedded flowers, ovaries or ovules, and end. PM recognized that embryology and Hill Book Company, New York. In his staining of sections, followed by their morphogenesis are linked and should be 3 seminal work , An Introduction to the light microscopic examination and the studied together.