Botany

"BOTANY, n. The science of vegetables -- those that are not good to eat, as well as those that are. It deals largely with their flowers, which are commonly badly designed, inartistic in color, and ill- smelling."

"Alchemy does not mix or compound anything, it causes that which already exists in a latent state to become active and grow. Alchemy is, therefore, more comparable to botany or agriculture than to Chemistry; and, in fact, the growth of a plant, a tree, or an animal is an alchemical process going on in the alchemical laboratory of nature, and performed by the great Alchemist, the power of God acting in nature."

"My mother carefully fostered a liking for botany, giving me a small microscope and many books, which I yet have. Strange as it may seem, I now believe that botany and the natural system, by exercising discrimination of kinds, is the best of logical exercises. What I may do in logic is perhaps derived from that early attention to botany."

"Not only is eating invasive species a solution, but we’re taking pressure off the food system, saving resources. Japanese knotweed is incredible, it’s like a mix of asparagus and rhubarb."

"For centuries, botany has been closely linked to medicine, because plants provide the raw materials for many lotions and drugs. For example, , one of the most widely used drugs in the world, was originally derived from the bark of a tree, after the bark had been known for centuries to have anti-inflammatory properties. s describing curative plants enabled knowledge to pass from one generation to the next, although many of the earliest books would have been of little use as s. The ... shows how far illustrations could deviate, delightfully, from the text, and many plants described in classical scholarship are not found beyond the Mediterranean. Around the end of the 14th century artists began to make new, fresh, and direct observations from life. Especially fine examples are seen among the pages of the Carrara Herbal."

"The progress of botany, as of other sciences, comes from the interaction of so many factors that undue emphasis on any one can give a very distorted impression of the whole, but certainly among the most important of these for any given period are the prevailing ideas and intellectual attitudes, the assumptions and stimuli of the time, for often upon them depends the extent to which a particular study attracts an unbroken succession of men of industry and originality intent on building a system of knowledge and communicating it successfully to others of like mind."

"The cause of this, however, is, that the idea of individual, in the sense in which it occurs in animal nature, cannot in any way be applied to the vegetable world."

"But every plant developed in any higher degree, is an aggregate of fully individualized, independent, separate beings, even the cells themselves."

"Each cell leads a double life: an independent one, pertaining to its own development alone; and another incidental, in so far as it has become an integral part of a plant."

"How does this peculiar little organism, the cell, originate?"

"To enter upon Raspail’s work appears to me incompatible with the dignity of science. (in relation to François Raspail)"

"It is an altogether absolute law, that every cell (setting aside the cambium for the present) must make its first appearance in the form of a very minute vesicle, and gradually expand to the size which it presents in the fully-developed condition"

"The universal and altogether absolute fact at which we first arrive is, that the fibres are never formed free, but are developed in the interior of cells; and that the walls of these cells in the young state are simple, and generally very delicate."

"I now return, after this somewhat lengthy digression, to my subject."

"What is meant by to grow? is a question to which every child quickly replies, “when I am getting as big as father.’ There is truth in this answer, but not sufficient to satisfy science."

"Words have no value in themselves, but are like coin, merely tokens of a value not exhibited in species, in order to facilitate commerce."

"Unfortunately the perplexity of our social relations has caused us to forget entirely the original meaning of money, the sign has become to us the thing itself; may some good genius protect us from similar mistakes in our intellectual life."

"The plant unfolds itself by the expansion and development of the cells already formed. It is this phenomenon especially, one altogether peculiar to plants, which, because it depends upon the fact of their being composed of cells, can never occur in any, not even the most remote form in crystals or animals."

"The origin and signification of cambium is the nut on which so many young phytologists have already broken their milk-teeth, the Gordian knot which so many botanical Alexanders have cut instead of untying, and the enigma, for the solution of which almost all the Coryphæi of our science have laboured with more or less success."

"I have attempted in this Memoir, so far as lay in my power, to solve many interesting questions in Vegetable Physiology, or, by more accurate definitions of the subject, to advance nearer to a future solution. May these observations meet with a friendly reception at the hands of the vegetable physiologists of Germany, and be speedily improved upon and extended."

"—to give him the name by which he has generally been known in this country—compiled a work which is usually cited under its Latin title, ; in this treatise he included about five hundred plants. No contemporary version has survived; the only manuscript which we shall consider here is Byzantine, and dates from around 512. It was made for , a noble lady whose father, , had once been, for a brief space, Emperor of the West. Juliana, who lived into the age of , was renowned for her ardent Christian faith, and for the churches she built. It is probable that the manuscript associated with her name remained in during the first millennium of its history."

"Written in vernacular Italian for the , the Carrara Herbal is a translation of the work of a 9th-century Arab physician called , and it is celebrated for the beauty and realism of its paintings. The unnamed artist did not copy the works of others but instead looked at nature. ... we see the artist expressing his own knowledge of plants through what he sees with his own eyes and this was revolutionary. Like the painter of the Carrara Herbal, the Italian fine artist (c. 1395–1455). working in the very early years of the Renaissance, was ahead of his contemporaries in so far as he also drew directly from nature."

"While other Herbals have been re-issued, such as 's English Physician, 1652, and 's Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, 1629, 's, in its original form, is hardly suitable for present-day publication. Fourth-fifths of it would be regarded as tedious, such as the long descriptions of many forgotten varieties of plants, or laborious arguments and quotations about the names and identities. There remains the fragrant essence, that which has given the work its fame, mostly Gerard's own observations as distinct from the original translation of 's Latin herbal."

"The earliest flower drawings were for the most part made to assist the searcher after herbs and s. was desired and soon to a surprising degree achieved, for there can be little doubt, as we shall see, that the illustrations provided for herbals nearly two thousand years ago were highly naturalistic. Gradually, however, unintelligent copying led to a debased and stylised type of figure which was nothing more than a decorative embellishment to the text. With the Renaissance came a revival of naturalism, but the function of the botanical illustrator remained at first unchanged."

"... in the first century AD, the first known copies of ' ('On Medical Material') were produced, translated into both Latin and Arabic. These were written by a Roman physician of Greek origin called . In this illustrated book he covered 600 plants with around a further 1,000 medicines made from them. It was widely read for thousands of years and was regarded as a pharmaceutical 'bible' for those in practice, becoming the most influential work on medicinal plants in both Christian and Islamic cultures. Astonishingly, a copy of the illustrated manuscript, dating back to the sixth century, is still in existence, held in Istanbul, Turkey."

"Choosing the subject for a drawing or painting is an important part of the creative process. Selecting a good example of the plant you are going to paint is the first step towards a good illustration."

"The artist may not ask any questions about the species at all, but rather look at a flower as an individual of nature with its own unique features of colour, texture, form, size, and proportion. Their first question may be 'how do I capture the essence of the flower in my canvas?' Or perhaps 'how do I create a work of true beauty that may equal or surpass nature itself?'"

"The artist must decide whether the correct botanical information has been conveyed in the the drawing in the best way possible. When and flowers are huddled together they can be repositioned to give a more open design; and leaves lining up with stems can be moved slightly so that the drawing can be clearly understood. It is difficult to know whether to include insect damage and nibbled bits, as well as leaves that have been on the plant all year and look discoloured and weary. When you are illustrating a plant that retains its bare leaves all through the year, such as a , it would be unwise to tidy up the plant and remove the older leaves as this would destroy part of the plant's life history. Leaves with autumnal fruits will not appear as fresh as they would in the spring."

"The comprises the most biodiverse region in the world, but, despite being highly threatened by human-induced s, little is known about how those changes influence the remaining forest’s extent and configuration in Brazil’s arc of . We analysed the spatial and temporal dynamics and the configuration of forest cover in Brazil’s state of over 34 years. We calculated seven landscape metrics based on freely available satellite imagery to understand the habitat transformations. Overall, natural vegetation cover declined from 90.9% to 62.7% between 1986 and 2020, and fragmentation greatly increased, generating 78,000 forest fragments and 100,000 fragments of ‘natural vegetation’, which also includes forest."

"Forests clean the air, filter water, control and support biodiversity (Acharya et al., 2019; Aznar-Sánchez et al., 2018). In addition, many forests are spiritual and cultural sites, enriching the lives of people in surrounding communities and offering opportunities for aesthetic enjoyment, relaxation and recreation (Brauman et al., 2020). Forests also play a significant role in influencing localised temperatures and rainfall (Leite-Filho et al., 2021; Schwaab et al., 2021). In 2020, total forest carbon stocks were estimated to be 662 million s, averaging 163 t per (, 2020). Between 1990 and 2020, global forest carbon stocks declined; however, forest carbon stocks per hectare increased owing to improved (FAO, 2020). Human activities, including deforestation and unsustainable practices, in particular, have greatly impacted forest ecosystems (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2010). Between 1990 and 2020, 420 million hectares of forest were lost to other land uses. Despite a slowing deforestation rate, forests continued to decline at an annual rate of 0.25 % between 2015 and 2020 (FAO, 2020). Halting deforestation and forest degradation is crucial for addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, desertification, and threats to human health (Rametsteiner et al., 2022). Forests also play a crucial role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), mitigating climate change, and enhancing human well-being and economic prosperity (Rametsteiner et al., 2022). Forest governance, therefore, includes the restoration of degraded forests, expanding forest cover, upgrading forest quality, increasing sustainable use and building green value chains to help meet future demands for materials and ecosystem services and to support greener, circular economies."

"In the 1920s about 60 percent of Haiti still had forest cover. In the 1980s it was estimated that between 1 and 4 percent of Haiti still had forest cover."