Apricots, Plums, and Garden Beans: Reassembling Nehemiah Grew's Collection of Plants

Christoffer Basse Eriksen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nehemiah Grew is rightly lauded as one of the first and most sophisticated promoters of the discipline of plant anatomy—the observation and representation of the insides of plants. Overlooked so far, though, are his activities as a plant collector. In this paper, I reconstruct Grew's plant-collection practices from his first medical garden, through his incorporation of specimens from the Royal Society's repository, and to its expansion through his support of intercontinental plant-gathering missions. These activities gave Grew access both to fresh, local plant samples, which he could observe again and again, as well as to foreign specimens that exhibited some of the more curious variations of nature. I argue that these different plant-collecting strategies reflected his overarching ambitions with his plant anatomy, which was to construct an idealised model of plant formation, generation, and growth. In order to do this, Grew pieced together his observations of individual specimens into one generalised model through the method of collation. While not offering concrete advice on how to grow plants more efficiently, I argue that Grew's idealised representation of the processes of plant life was offered as a framework for further botanical experimentation.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCentaurus
Volume65
Issue4
Pages (from-to)767-791
Number of pages25
ISSN0008-8994
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • 17th and 18th Century
  • Classification
  • Colonial Science
  • History of Botany
  • Natural History
  • Plant Collection

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