linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica STEPHEN FREER Stephen Freer, born at Little Compton in1920, was a classical scholar at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge. In 1940, he was approached by the Foreign Office and worked at Bletchley Park and in London. Later, Stephen was employed by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, retiring in 1962 due to ill health. He has continued to work since then, first as a volunteer for the MSS department of the Bodleian Library with Dr William Hassall, and then on a part-time basis at the Oxfordshire County Record. In 1988, he was admitted as a lay reader in the Diocese of Oxford. His previous book was a translation of Wharton’s Adenographia, published by OUP in 1996. A fellow of the Linneau Society of London, Stephen lives with his wife Frederica in Gloucestershire. They have a daughter, Isabel. COVER ILLUSTRATION Rosemary Wise, who designed and painted the garland of flowers on the book cover, is the botanical illustrator in the Department of Plant Sciences in the University of Oxford, associate staff at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a fellow of the Linneau Society of London. In1932 Carl Linnaeus made an epic journey to Lapland, the vast area across arctic Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In 1988, to mark the bicentenary of the Linneau Society of London, a group from Great Britain and Sweden retraced his route. Rosemary, was the official artist and the flowers featured here are taken from ones painted at that time, plants with which Linnaeus would have been familiar. The garland of flowers surrounds an image of the medallion portrait of Linnaeus by C. F. Inlander, 1773, reproduced with kind permission from the Linnean Society of London. Portrait of Linnaeus, engraved by Johann Martin Bernigeroth. linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica TRANSLATED BY Stephen Freer 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Oxford University Press, 2003 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) This work was first published in Latin in 1751 in Stockholm and Amsterdam This English translation first published 2003 First published in paperback 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Linné, Carl von, 1707–1778. [Philosophia botanica. English] Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica / translated by Stephen Freer. – 1st English ed. p. cm. First published in Stockholm and Amsterdam in 1751. 1. Botany – Classification. I. Freer, Stephen II. Title. QK91 .P513 2002 580′.12 – dc21 2002030761 Typeset by EXPO Holdings, Malaysia Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Ashford Colour Press Limited, Gosport, Hampshire ISBN 0–19–850122–6 978–0–19–850122–0 ISBN 0–19–856934–3 (Pbk.) 978–0–19–856934–3 (Pbk.) 10987654321 for frederica This page intentionally left blank vii contents Preface Stephen Freer, IX Introduction Paul Alan Cox, XV Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica Title page, 1 Dedication, 3 To the botanical reader, 5 Introduction, 9 I. The library, 13 II. Systems, 31 III. Plants, 51 IV. The fruit-body, 65 V. Sex, 99 VI. Characters, 111 VII. Names, 169 VIII. Definitions, 219 IX. Varieties, 257 X. Synonyms, 269 XI. Sketches, 277 XII. Potencies, 299 Plates 1–11, 308 Memoranda, 329 Addenda, 336 Omissa, 337 Errata, 339 Translator’s notes, 341 viii contents Appendix I: The Linnaean classes and orders, 351 Appendix II: The natural orders, 353 Appendix III: Abbreviations of names of botanists and other authorities, 357 Appendix IV: Selective list of Linnaeus’ works up to 1753, 360 Appendix V: Selective list of other botanical works, 362 Appendix VI: Principal sources used for this edition, 364 Indexes Contents and terms, 365 Genera, 379 ix preface Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica (The Science of Botany) was first published in 1751. In 1736 he had produced Fundamenta Botanica (the Foundations of Botany), consisting of 365* aphorisms concerning all aspects of the subject, divided into 12 chapters. These are repeated as the first paragraphs of each of the sections of the Philosophia, and are followed by detailed explanatory matter, probably based on his lecture notes. The book is an important stage in the development of binominal nomenclature, which was carried further in his Species Plantarum (Plant Species) of 1753, and which has become universal in botany and zoology. The following is a bibliographical description of the first edition: CAROLI LINNÆI/ARCHIATR. REG. MEDIC. ET BOTAN. PROFESS. UPSAL./ACAD. IMPERIAL. MONSPEL. BEROL. TOLOS. UPSAL./STOCKH. SOC. ET PARIS. CORRESP./ PHILOSOPHIA/BOTANICA/ IN QVA/EXPLICANTUR/FUNDAMENTA BOTANICA/CUM/DEFINITIONIBUS PARTIUM,/EXEMPLIS TERMINORUM,/ OBSERVATIONIBUS RARIORUM,/ADJECTIS/FIGURIS/ÆNEIS [sic]/Medallion with design of Linnaea Borealis plants and motto TANTUS AMOR FLORUM/Rule/CUM PRIVILEGIO/Rule/STOCKHOLMIÆ apud GODOFR KIESEWETTER,/AMSTELODAMI apud Z. CHATELAIN./1751. 8o; [Π]3, A-Y8, Z5; 41†ll; 362 pp. * It is probably not accidental that this corresponds to the number of days in the year. † This figure is from pages containing uniform matter, such as lists and indexes; the number of lines is often variable on pages where several different founts are used. x preface Contents: [Π]1a title, 1b blank, 2a dedication, 2b blank, 3ab preface; pp. 1–362 text; engravings opposite even–numbered pages 288–304, and on pp. 307 and 309. Copies: Linnean Society (several, including one annotated by the author); Bodleian Library. Some copies include as a frontispiece an engraving, of a portrait of Linnaeus, by Johann Martin Bernigeroth. Later editions were published at Vienna in 1755, 1763, and 1770. Revised editions were produced at Berlin in 1780 and at Halle an der Saale in 1809. In 1775 there appeared an English work based on the Philosophia, namely Elements of Botany by Hugh Rose. Acomplete French version, Charles Linné’s Philosophie botanique, translated by François-Alexandre Quesné from the editions of 1770 and 1780, was published at Paris and Rouen in 1788. In the same year, a Spanish version of the Fundamenta, Carlos Linnéo’s Fundamentos Botánicos, translated by Angel Gomez Ortega, was published (with the Latin text) at Madrid. In 1966 a facsimile of the first edition was published at Lehre in Germany, as Vol. 48 of Historiae Naturalis Classica, edited by J. Cramer and H.K. Swann, and issued by Wheldon and Wesley Ltd, Stechert Hafner Agency Inc., at Codicote, Hertfordshire, and New York. Linnaeus was precise in his use of technical terms, with some very fine distinctions. For instance, a male plant is described as mas, whereas a male flower is masculus; a single plant bearing both male and female flowers is androgynous, but a bisexual flower is hermaphrodite. Yet some words that he regularly uses in a technical sense can also appear with a more general application; thus pistillum can be the pistil of a flower or the clapper of a bell; calyx the botanical calyx or a common cup; hybernaculum may refer to a winter bud or a greenhouse! I have used the name Linnaeus rather than Linné, because it is the form that is familiar in English.* With other names, I have generally used the vernacular form, if ascertained, except where the Latin form is generally used in English (e.g. Dillenius rather than Dillen). In some cases, the Latin is a translation rather than an adaptation of the vernacular, (e.g. Tragus,* Bock), and here I have given both forms. * As was usual in Scandinavia, the family had no hereditary surname (but used patronymics) until the time of the matriculation of Carl’s father Nils Ingemarsson at the university, where a distinctive surname was required; (it was derived from a prominent lime tree on land belonging to the family). When Carl was ennobled in 1761, a vernacular version was needed, and this is the name by which he is usually known in Sweden and elsewhere. preface xi In the English rendering of the title, I have put ‘Science’ rather than ‘Philosophy’, since in this context, the latter term might give a misleading impression in modern English. Again, ars may mean ‘art’ in some passages and ‘technique’ or ‘technical skill’ in others; scientia may be ‘science’ or ‘knowledge’; Ringens may be ‘gaping’ or ‘ringent’ (without any distinction of meaning); loculus, rendered ‘chamber’, and loculamentum, ‘compartment’ or ‘space’, appear to be synonyms (see Sections 93 and 94). Linnaeus was the first to give the terms ‘corolla’ and ‘petal’ their now accepted botanical meanings. For the spelling of the names of the genera, The Plant Book by D. J. Mabberley has been taken as the standard; so we have ‘Liriodendron’ (with Greek ending), where Linnaeus wrote ‘Liriodendrum’; conversely ‘Haematoxylum’ for ‘Haematoxylon’; and ‘Hippophaë’ rather than ‘Hippophaës’.† But in some places (e.g.