Phermatology, a new name for the science of seeds

Abstract

By their impetuous development in recent times, studies have made valuable contributions to our knowledge of plants, their origin and evolution. The reform of the descriptive morphology of the coat developed by Corer (1976; cf. Schmid, 1986), the series of ontogenetic studies carried out by F. Bouman, W. van Heel, T. Takaso and many others, as well as the palaeobotanical studies of G. Rothwell, T. Taylor, and V. Krassilov, have provided a new foundation for science. Paradoxically, the reorganized building of science still preserves its old name, spermatology. In my view, this name is unmanageable in plant morphology because of its animal-centred denotation; only few major botanical works have been issued using this name in the title (Boehmer, 1777-1784; Cabel, 1881, 1882). More recently, Makrusin (1989) coined the term heterospermatology for the comparative study of growing. It is my present aim to introduce a new term, avoiding any reference to spermatology. Spermatology has been derived from the Greek T7cpstEa, meaning both seeds or fruits from plants and seed from animals and humans. In common usage the latter meaning is dominant, pointing at gametes rather than seeds containing an embryo. To coin a new and more accurate name for the study of botanical seeds and fruits, it is relevant to note the confusion between (TsepPt (sperma) and Kap70oq (karpos); this confusion can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and survived up to 19th Century (Schychowsky, 1832). However, in Hippokrates (ed. 1839-1861: 687, 12) and Xenophon (ed. 1900: 16, 11) both terms have been used freely as synonyms and were seemingly interchangeable in ancient Greek. Therefore, to derive a new term from KoXap7og is not very appropriate. There is a little used term, (ppCpla (pherma), found in Aischylos (ed. 1852: 118), which is interpreted as fruit of the womb (Liddell & Scott, 1940) and is suitable for providing a manageable name for science. Therefore, I propose the term phermatology for the special branch of botany devoted to the studies of seeds, their structure, development, origin, evolution, use, etc.