Seventeenth-century plant lists and herbarium collections

Abstract

Lists of pre-Linnaean polynomial names of the plants growing in seventeenth-century European living plant collections are commonplace. However, comparison among lists and interpretation of polynomials in terms of modern Linnaean binomials is a major challenge for researchers. This paper shows the importance of extant pre-Linnaean collections of herbarium specimens for interpreting lists of plant names. More than 4,000 polynomials reported from the Oxford Physic Garden between 1648 and 1676 are linked to over 1,300 Linnaean species names based on an objective methodology. These fundamental data show that medicinal, culinary and ornamental plants attracted attention in the seventeenth-century garden but that most species were primarily of botanical interest. Nearly 60 per cent of the species were introductions to Britain. Linnaean binomials reveal how the number and sorts of species changed between 1648 and 1676 and how the garden was used.