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BAUHIN brothers: JOHANN, Historia plantarum universali, woodcuts largely from Fuchs); KASPAR, traveled throughout Europe studying botany, studied at Basel receiving degree to teach botany. Phytologia (1596), Prodromus theatri botanici (1620), illustrated, good descriptions, synonyms, mostly binomial names, natural classification attempted.
NICOLAS MONARDES(1493-1588)-"unhampered by too many facts" wrote in Spanish of medicinal properties of New World plants, transl.: Joyful News out of the New Found World, written in Spanish by Nicolas Monardes, physician of Seville, and Englished by John Frampton, Anno 1577.
FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ-commissioned by Philip II of Spain to explore New World, ran out of money and suffered many hardships, his collected writings, published after his death are of ethnobotanical importance(J. Gauer says most recent are most accurate.)
The seventeenth century a period of great progress in all fields(Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Newton), of organizationa dn synthesis, of invention of microscope, of societies and academies (Royal Society of London (1660), Academie des Sciences (1666), Akademie der Wissenschaften (1700)).
JOACHIM JUNG (1537-1637)-significant for his philosophical concepts of libing organisms, studied morphology apart from taxonomy, developed precise descriptions and conceptions or organs, e.g. in Isagoge phytoscopia (1678).
JOSEPH PITTON DE TOURNEFORT(1656-1708)-used morphology of flower and fruit in classification, revised concept of Kaspar Bauhin, but placed chief emphasis on the genus; worked out an artificial system of groups higher than genus.
ROBERT MORISON(1620-1683)- Scotsman who joined Royalists against Cromwell, in France gained favor of court and studied botany. Recalled to England by Charles II was made Royal Physician, Royal Professor of Botany, and Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, later, Professor of Botany at Oxford. Disagreeable person who gave no credit to Cesalpino, Gesner, et al., From whom he drew freely. Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis, pars secunda...(1680), 1st part unpublished, employs a system of classification based on flower and fruit.
JOHN RAY (1628-1705)-marks end of period of herbalists and beginning of observational period; considered species as constant; made important classification based on habit (tree, shrubs, and herbs) and number of cotyledons in Historia Plantarum (1666-1704). Admitted probability of sexuality in plants.
ZACHARIAS JANSSEN-spectacle maker in Holland presented in 1599 to Charles Albert, Archduke of Austria, first microscope, 6 feet long with two lenses.
ROBERT HOOKE (1635-1703)- hobbyist who in Micrographia (1665) described his 'adventures through the microscope' portraying "cells" and "interstitia" of cork.
Figures in plant anatomy:Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), animal physiologist and plant anatomist, describes stomata, seed coat, galls, etc.; Nehemiah Grew(1628-1711) physician and Secretary of Royal Society, made exact drawings and descriptions, founder of histology:parenchyma, fibers, vessels, etc.
Figures in physiology:Harvey's discovery of circulation of blood in mammals led to study of absorption and translocation in plants by Jung, Malpighi, Grew, etc. with mostly unsatisfactory results; Van Helmont (1577-1644), chemist who studied gases, finding fermentation produced same kind of air as when charcoal is burned, performed famous experiment of growing weighed tree in weighed soil to determine source of 'food'; Edme Mariotte (c 1620-1684),studied ascent of sap in plants in relation to grafts between wild and cultivated pears.
Figures in botanical exploration: Hans Sloane (1660-1753), brought to England and described a collection of plants from Jamaica (worked by Ray); James Cunningham investigated flora of China and described tea plant; Rumphius (Georg Eberhard Rumpf, 1668-1702), worked on flora of Moluccas (Ambolina) in Herbarium Amboinense (1741-1755), the famous Dutch East India Co. manuscript, unpublished for 30 years.
The eighteenth century was a less inventive period of criticism and agnosticism, the church and state largely indifferent to progress of science.
RUDOLPH CAMERARIUS (1665-1721)- professor of botany and director of botanical garden at Ebingen, later professor of physics; proved existence of sexuality in dioecious plants in his garden, e.g. mulberry, mercury; stamens produce male powder which