Field Botany Research Articles

Phytosociology for undergraduates with minimal botanical background

This paper describes how second/third year undergraduates with little prior botanical knowledge, attending a one-week field course in Western Scotland, were enabled to complete within one day an intensive phytosociological exercise. They showed that two stands of heathland vegetation were objectively different through identification of plants, estimation of species abundance, and ordination analysis. This gave them the knowledge and confidence to design and undertake a subsequent project in field botany.

Reliable DNA ploidy determination in dehydrated tissues of vascular plants by DAPI flow cytometry—new prospects for plant research

Only fresh plant material is generally used for rapid DNA ploidy estimation by flow cytometry (FCM). This requirement, however, substantially limits convenient FCM application in plant biosystematics, population biology, and ecology. As desiccation is a routine way for sample preservation in field botany, potential utilization of dehydrated tissues of vascular plants in FCM research was examined. Standard DAPI protocol was employed to evaluate the performance of 60 air-dried species, spanning more than 100-fold range of nuclear DNA amounts. Multiploid Vaccinium subg. Oxycoccus was selected as model taxon for detailed investigation and cytotype comparison. A majority of analyzed plants yielded distinct peaks with reasonable coefficients of variation after several months of storage at room temperature. Fluorescence intensity of nuclei isolated from desiccated tissues was highly comparable with that for fresh material, allowing reliable DNA ploidy estimation. Deep-freezer preservation substantially extended Vaccinium samples lifetime (at least to 3 years) and maintained high histogram resolution. The introduced approach eliminates the need for fresh material in many vascular plants and thus opens new prospects for plant FCM. Convenient cytotype investigation in field research and retrospective ploidy determination in already herbarized samples are among the principal advantages.

Vaderlandse weelde op de kaart gezet. Belgische botanici, wetenschappelijke ijver en nationale motieven

Andreas Stynen, Native wealth charted. Belgian botanists, scientific zeal and patriotic motivesThis article analyses the importance of patriotic motives in nineteenth-century Belgian botany, without reducing the study of indigenous plants to a vehicle of aggressive, blatantly biased chauvinism. Different forms of more subtle nationalism enabled Belgian field botanists to define their activities as a mature and internationally respected field among the natural sciences. Four different phases can be discerned. During the period of Austrian and French domination, botany was first and foremost a means to economically enrich the state, by reducing its dependence on imports. After Belgian independence (1830), striving for utility was increasingly overshadowed by a longing for completeness: field trips were fuelled by a desire to collect and chart all Belgian species. From 1860 onwards, individual species mattered less than the geobotanical regions: the national territory was discovered to offer a rich variety of landscapes. The popularity of laboratories at the end of the century threatened to dismiss field botany as merely amateurish, but an ecological approach to the national vegetation, combined with explicit pleas for the protection of Belgian’s natural wealth, provided the impetus for a new round of research. This article is part of the special issue 'Landschap, natuur en nationale identiteit'.

George Bentham's Handbook of the British flora: from controversy to cult

George Bentham's Handbook of the British flora sold steadily for almost a century from its publication in 1858 to the relatively inexperienced for whom it was explicitly intended, thanks to full descriptions, dichotomous keys and a lengthy exposition of botanical terminology. But in using it as a vehicle for his controversially broad conception of species, and in aggressively dismissing in the preface the validity of much work by those who, unlike him, had long investigated that flora critically, Bentham provoked lasting hostility to the book among the more advanced. The continued buoyancy of its sales after Bentham's death owed less to limited revisions by Sir Joseph Hooker than to the dying-off of its competitors and the addition of W. H. Fitch's line-drawings of every species, the colouring-in of which became popular as a substitute for collecting specimens. The book's aggregate approach in its taxonomy, however, had a divisive effect on the field botany community, a situation ended in 1952 by the Flora of the British Isles of A. R. Clapham, T. G. Tutin and E. F. Warburg and its subsequent associated volumes.

The life and times of Robert Smith

Summary Robert Smith (1874–1900) is credited with having made the first systematic ecological studies to be carried out in Britain. His childhood in Dundee is described and consideration is given to the possible influence of his brother William and of the countryside of Angus and Ayrshire in forming his early interest in field botany and vegetation science. His pioneering studies were encouraged by Patrick Geddes and D'Arcy Thompson, and later by Charles Flahault in Montpellier, so that Smith became an outstanding teacher and researcher at a time of momentous developments in the natural sciences.

JANICE CARSON BEATLEY (1919‐1987): TAXONOMIST AND ECOLOGIST

SummaryJanice Carson Beatley, native Ohio botanist of the United States, will be remembered for her contributions toward the understanding of the wintergreen herbaceous flora of the deciduous forest region, the primeval forests of the unglaciated plateau in southeastern Ohio, and the ecological relationships of the vascular‐plant flora of the Atomic Test Site in south‐central Nevada. Throughout her professional life, Dr. Beatley was an outspoken advocate for ecological and environmental concerns while employed in seven different academic and research institutions and through active memberships in seven societies, whose mission is to save habitats and environments of natural areas. In her last academic appointment as a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati (1973‐1987), Dr. Beatley taught courses in plant ecology and field botany and continued her research on the flora of the Nevada Test Site. In that capacity she fulfilled a long dream of returning to Ohio and teaching in the same department where Dr. E. Lucy Braun, the eminent plant ecologist, taught for 34 years and maintained her lifetime affiliation. Death came to Janice at age 68, on 14 November 1987 in Cincinnati, Ohio.As a lasting memorial in recognition of Janice C. Beatley's research in plant systematics and ecology, her brother and sister, Charles E. and Mary A. (Beatley) Jordan, presented a gift of $50,000 to the Herbarium of The Ohio State University, 16 November 1988. This donation provides for a permanent endowment from which the generated interest money will be available for field research by graduate students in the plant systematics and plant ecology programs within the Department of Botany at The Ohio State University.

The Paleontologist As A Teacher of Natural History

The paleontologist is in an ideal position, with training in both physical and biological sciences, to develop a course in natural history. Field studies in geology and field botany have strong appeal to many students in the arts and humanities. Such a natural history course has been developed at Indiana University and is described briefly here with emphasis on the geology and botany of southern Indiana.

Plants: Wild and Cultivated. A Conference on Horticulture and Field Botany

Plants: Wild and Cultivated. A Conference on Horticulture and Field Botany

Observations on the Occurrence of the Prothallia of Lycopodium inundatum

In the study of pteridophytes, the discovery of sexual plants is generally unusual. This is due in part to the small size of the gametophytes and in part to their commonly concealed habit. In the Lycopodiaceae alone, only 10% of the nearly 500 species have known gametophytes (Bierhorst, 1971). Discovering prothallia of pteridophytes under natural conditions is one of the most challenging problems of field botany. In this paper I wish to report the first record of Lycopodium inundatum L. gametophytes for North America and to discuss their characteristics and the circumstances of their discovery. The gametophytes of the Lycopodiaceae have interested botanists for almost a hundred years since the first discovery of naturally occurring gametophytes (Fankhouser, 1873). Our understanding of these plants, however, has been greatly hindered by the rarity of collections. The most important contributions to our knowledge were all carried out well over 50 years ago by only a few notable workers. They established the taxonomic distribution of the types of gametophytes and also the major stages in the development of the gametophyte and embryo. Treub (1884; 1886a,b; 1888a,b; 1890a,b,c) in Java described the gametophyte and embryo of L. cernuum L. and several other tropical species. Goebel (1887) found and described the gametophyte of L. inundatum L. in Europe. This is the only time the gametophyte of this species has ever been reported, as far as I have been able to determine. Probably the best known work on the prothalli of the Lycopodiaceae is that of Bruchmann, who essentially laid the foundations for the systematic study of these plants. It was he who first described (1885, 1898, 1908, 1910) in detail the gametophytes of the temperate species L. annotinum L., L. clavatum L., L. complanatunm L. (which may actually have been L. tristachyum Pursh according to Wilce, 1965), and L. selago L. Bruchmann also succeeded in growing the prothalli of L. annotinumi, L. clavatlilul, and L. selago from spores, which required in some cases 6-7 years to germinate and 12-15 years to mature. An excellent review of the early attempts to germinate the spores of Lycopodiunl species was made by Chamberlain (1917). Freeberg and Wetmore (1958), in their study of the culture of Lycopodiunm gametophytes in vitro, have summarized in greater detail than is done here the contributions of Bruchmann, Treub, and Goebel.

Vasco M. Tanner

During the summer of 1925 there arrived on the campus of Brigham Young University a young man who had received his Ph.D. from Stanford University that same year. Dr. Vasco M. Tanner had come to serve as chairman of the newly organized Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University. Prior to the coming of Dr. Tanner a diversity of courses in the biological sciences were taught under several teachers. In 1903 Brigham Young Academy became a University through the efforts of President Benjamin Cluff. One of the early teachers of biological subjects was Chester Van Buren, who had accompanied President Cluff on an expedition to Central and South America. The school at that time, being principally a high school, offered only a limited number of courses on a college level, but Mr. Van Buren taught a course in ornithology during the 1904-05 school year. Later the curriculum was expanded to include courses in plant physiology, field botany, zoological collecting, and taxidermy. In 1908-09 a Department of Biology was organized, and for a three-year period Dr. Ralph V. Chamberlain was head of the department and was assisted by Chester Van Buren, Andrew T. Rasmussen, and Charles H. Carrol. Chamberlain left the University soon afterward. Van Buren departed to go into private business, Rasmussen went away for graduate work and later became a well-known neurologist, and Carrol eventually became a medical doctor. Beginning about 1913 Professor Edwin Smart, who was trained primarily as a horticulturist, taught a course in entomology until his untimely death in 1920. Dr. Martin P. Henderson became professor of biology in 1915. He was assisted by Professor Smart and later by Drs. Horace G. Merrill and L. Weston Oakes, who had joined the medical staff and taught courses in physiology and health. Dr. Henderson became ill in 1923 and never again returned to his duties at the University. His work was taken up by Walter P. Cottam with the assistance of Drs. Merrill, Oakes, and Dr. Charles H. Carrol who had returned after completing his M.D. degree.

Devon Island Programs, 1968

Four field parties, studying glaciology, botany and ornithology, used the Arctic Institute's facilities on Devon Island during the summer of 1968. The botanical and ornithological studies were carried out from the Base Camp near Cape Sparbo, while the glaciological work was pursued from field camps on the ice cap and the Sverdrup Glacier. ...

Arthur George Tansley, 1871-1955

When he died in 1955 Sir Arthur Tansley had fortunately acceded to a standing request from the Council of the Royal Society for biographical information and in 1953 had supplied them with a typescript of what he called ‘factual biographical notes’. These were in fact a good deal better than ‘notes’, for they are carefully composed and constitute an excellent example of his own delightfully lucid and almost laconic style of writing. Since moreover that part of them which concerns his earliest school and university career is nearly unavailable from other directions, and contains his own characteristically objective comments upon the teachers and scientists of those days, it has seemed appropriate to derive this biography, up to the turn of the century and Tansley’s migration to Cambridge in 1906, almost directly from his own notes. This is signified below by the quotation marks and the concluding bracketed initials (A.G.T.). ‘Tansley was born on 15 August 1871, at 33 Regent Square, W.C., the only son of George Tansley and his wife, Amelia Lawrence. He had one sister, seven years older than himself. ‘[His father] was opposed to Arthur’s engaging in business, and very anxious that he should go to one of the old universities, for which George had the deepest respect and admiration. Arthur showed scientific leanings, especially towards botany, which had been stimulated by a member of the Working Men’s College—a wood turner by trade—who was an excellent and enthusiastic field botanist. From the age of 12 to 15 (1883-6) Arthur was at a preparatory school at Worthing where two successive masters were keen field naturalists, and their example fostered his attraction to field botany.

Arthur William Hill, 1875 - 1941

Arthur William Hill was born at Watford on 11 October 1875 and was the only son of Daniel Hill, who retired from a strenuous business life in the early ’nineties. Daniel Hill had a large and beautiful garden at Watford, the care of which was his chief interest, and it was through him that Arthur W. Hill imbibed during his boyhood the sound practical knowledge of most branches of horticulture which was to stand him in such good stead later. Hill entered Marlborough College in 1890, living in a house in the town from which he went to the school as a day boy. At Marlborough he began to take a great interest in field botany, largely through the influence of a classical master, the late Edward Meyrick, F.R.S., who was himself a keen naturalist. Marlborough is one of the best districts in England for the study of wild plants, and in after life Hill used often to refer to the large number of orchids he found on the Marlborough Downs as a schoolboy. There is no doubt that the environment of Marlborough exercised a great influence on Hill: he returned there as often as possible to visit his old school and to enjoy the solace of riding and walking in Savernake Forest and on the Downs. For many years until his death he was an honorary member of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, and he bequeathed to the college a considerable part of his estate. Hill sat for the entrance scholarship examination of one of the groups of Cambridge colleges in 1893, and it is related that one of his examiners made a special appeal for an award to him on the ground that his botanical knowledge and enthusiasm gave evidence of greater promise than the mark-list showed. He was awarded an exhibition at King’s College, and never was award better justified. He was subsequently made a Foundation Scholar of the college.

The Botanist in the Garden

FIIFTY years ago botany, so far as the class-room 1 was concerned, was very much a matter of definitions, just as field botany was concerned almost wholly with the making of a herbarium of local species. The student found himself set to learn a new language dichasial inflorescences, gynandro-phores, campylotropous ovules as though designed to inculcate the advantages of a classical education. This conception survived pretty well to the end of the nineteenth century. Towards the close of the ‘nineties, when examining a school which professed botany, and turning over the notebooks, I found this sentence, evidently taken down by the whole class from dictation, or rather copied from the blackboard, for the spelling would otherwise have offered variants: “Amaryllis fruit a bilocular loculicidal capsule, a diplotegium”. One of my co-examiners breathed his gratitude that he had been introduced to the lady under a happier star and had been learned instead “to sport with Amaryllis in the shade”. The Living Garden: or the How and Why of Garden Life. By Dr. E. J. Salisbury. Pp. xi + 338 + 17 plates. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1935.) 10s. 6d.net.

Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles

UNDER the editorship of the new secretary, W. H. Pearsall, this report (Arbroath: T. Buncle and Co, 1933) contains a mass of interesting information relating to British field botany. Lists and critical notes on many new varieties, subspecies and adven-tive species, and new county records are given. Articles on critical species and genera are contributed by the late Dr. Drabble on “Ranunculus bulbosus and its varieties in Great Britain” and “Valeriana officinalis and its allies in Great Britain”. Mr. Pearsall gives a revision of the genus Zannichellia and new keys and descriptions of the British species of Carex. A. E. Wade contributes notes on the genus Myosotis and J. S. L. Gilmour writes on “The Taxonomy of Plants intermediate between Medicago sativa and M. falcata and their history in East Anglia” and shows that M. sylvestris is of hybrid origin. Other articles include “The Adventive Flora of the Port of Bristol” by C. I. Sandwith, “Plant Nomenclature” by Drk Sprague, and a well-illustrated account of environmental adaptation in various sand dune plants at Braunton Burrows by Dr. F. R. E. Wright.

Prof. C. E. Moss

THE death on Nov. 11 last of Prof. C. E. Moss, at his home in Johannesburg, at the age of sixty, is a serious loss to South African botany and to systematic botany at large. Charles Edward Moss was a native of Cheshire, the youngest child of a Nonconformist minister who settled at Halifax in 1874. He gained his early education at elementary schools in that town, eventually becoming a pupil-teacher. At the age of twenty-three he had a serious illness and his convalescence involved spending much time in the open air. This led to a keen interest in field botany and close acquaintance with the local naturalists, who were at that time a very active body. Moss thus became a competent field botanist before he was able, at twenty-five years of age, to go to the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and work for his degree as well as his teacher's certificate. At Leeds he found Miall's teaching and outlook very acceptable, and in 1896, when the late Dr. W. G. Smith went to Leeds as lecturer in botany, Moss was greatly attracted by the new method of studying and mapping plant communities in the field which had been inaugurated in Scotland by Smith's elder brother Robert.

Mr. J. Britten

THE sudden death of James Britten, fellow of the Linnean Society and for nearly forty-five years editor of the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, occurred at Brentford on October 8. He was born at Chelsea on May 3, 1846, and became attracted to the study of plants from an early age. His earliest printed paper known to the writer is in the Journal of Botany, in the first volume of which, issued in 1863, is a short paper on “Rare and Eyotic Plants at Kew Bridge.” In 1865 he removed to High Wycombe, and the four years spent in that town gave him further opportunities for studying field botany.

THE BOTANY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS, WITH REFERENCE TO HAY-FEVER AND ASTHMA

This article is the result of a year's study of glycerin pollen plates exposed twenty-four hours, later stained with compound solution of iodin, and examined twice each week. The plates were exposed in both the residence and business districts of San Antonio; in addition, a number of plates have been studied from Houston, Dallas, Corpus Christi and smaller cities nearer San Antonio. The actual field botany work and identification of specimens were done in connection with Miss Ellen Schulz, professor of botany in the San Antonio high schools, and Mr. Wallace Butler of the local U. S. Agricultural Experimental Station. GRASSES Grasses of numerous species in and about San Antonio grow profusely and constitute, by all odds, the most important pollen factor locally in hay-fever and asthma. The earliest pollen of the year found in the air was that of winter grass ( Bromus unioloides ), which has a short pollination season

Botany at the British Association

The President's Address. IN accordance with the custom that is growing up of arranging for a minimum of clashing between the various, presidential addresses, Prof. Trail delivered his address (which was printed in full in NATURE of October 6) at. 12 noon on Thursday, September 1. The address dealt with the subject of field botany, and the president particularly urged the need for the preparation of a really great national flora. As a direct outcome of the address, a committee was subsequently appointed, with Dr. Trail as chairman, to consider what steps should be taken towards organising and preparing the materials for such a flora.

Field, Forest and Garden Botany . A simple introduction to the common plants of the United States east of the 100th Meridian, both wild and cultivated. By Asa Gray. Revised and extended by L. H. Bailey. American Book Co. 1895. 8vo. pp. 519.

<i>Field, Forest and Garden Botany</i> . A simple introduction to the common plants of the United States east of the 100th Meridian, both wild and cultivated. By Asa Gray. Revised and extended by L. H. Bailey. American Book Co. 1895. 8vo. pp. 519.