Plants: Food, Medicine, and the Green Earth (Discovering the Earth)

Life would be impossible without plants: they provide food, either directly or in the form of plant-eating animals, as well as the many fibers we use, from the timber to build homes and the fuel for heating and cooking to the wood used to make tools and furniture. It is not surprising, therefore, that people have been studying plants for thousands of years.Plants details this search for understanding and some of the individuals who have contributed to it. This new full-color volume begins in ancient Greece, where philosophers first speculated about the origin of plants and where the study of botany began. It also examines medicinal plants, which were considered the prime concern for the founders of botany. This book recounts the adventures of some of the most famous plant collectors as well as the system of plant classification used by today's scientists. Describing the early developments of ecology, Plants ends with an explanation of biodiversity and why scientists think it's important.Chapters include:The Father of BotanyHerbals and Physic GardensBotanical Gardens and HerbariaNaming PlantsThe Plant HuntersGeography of PlantsPlant CultivationEvolution of PlantsPlant PhysiologyEcology of PlantsBiodiversity and Plant Conservation. Facts On File, Inc. Cover 1 PLANTS: Food, Medicine, and the Green Earth 4 Contents 6 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 13 1 The Father of Botany 16 Aristotle And His Natural History 17 Theophrastus, The Father Of Botany 19 Medicine And Plants 21 Pedanius Dioscorides And His Catalog Of Medicinal Plants 22 What Is a Pharmacopoeia? 23 Alexander The Great And His Empire 25 Pliny, Preserving Knowledge 28 John Ray And His Encyclopedia Of Plant Life 31 2 Herbals and Physic Gardens 34 Shennong, The Divine Farmer 35 The Aztec Herbal 37 Albert The Great And The Structure Of Plants 39 Konrad Von Megenberg And His Illustrated Herbal 41 Conrad Gessner, The German Pliny 42 Rembert Dodoens And The First Flemish Herbal 45 John Gerard And His Herbal 47 Nicholas Culpeper And His Herbal Best Seller 49 Leonhard Fuchs, Fuchsia, and the First Botanical Glossary 53 The Bauhin Family 57 Monastic Gardens 59 The Apothecaries’ Garden At Chelsea 60 The Doctrine Of Signatures 63 3 Botanical Gardens and Herbaria 66 Identifying Plants: The Herbal Becomes The Flora 66 Formal Gardens, Restoring Order To A Chaotic World 68 Lancelot “Capability” Brown 71 Luca Ghini And How To Press Flowers 72 The Rise Of The Herbarium 75 Pisa, Padua, And Florence, The First Botanical Gardens 77 Carolus Clusius, The Leiden Botanical Garden, And The Tulip 79 Tulipomania 82 Sir Henry Capel, Princess Augusta, And The Royal Botanic Gardens At Kew 82 Sir Joseph Banks, Unofficial Director Of Kew 85 Sir William Hooker, The First Official Director 87 Jean-baptiste Lamarck And The Royal Garden, Paris 89 José Mutis And The Bogotá Botanical Garden 91 4 Naming Plants 94 Joseph Pitton De Tournefort And The Grouping Of Plants 95 Carolus Linnaeus And The Binomial System 98 How Plants Are Classified 99 Augustin De Candolle And Natural Classification 101 Adolf Engler And The Vegetation Of The World 103 5 The Plant Hunters 105 Rhododendrons, Primulas, And Frank Kingdon-ward 106 David Douglas In North America And Hawaii 109 Reginald Farrer And Alpine Plants 111 George Forrest, Collecting In Yunnan 113 Robert Fortune, Collecting In Northern China 116 The Wardian Case 118 Ernest Wilson, Collecting In China And Japan 121 6 Geography of Plants 124 Alexander Von Humboldt And The Plants Of South America 125 Karl Ludwig Von Willdenow And The Start Of Scientific Plant Geography 128 Franz Meyen And Vegetation Regions 130 Alphonse De Candolle And Why Plants Grow Where They Do 131 Edward Forbes And The Significance Of Ice Ages 133 August Grisebach And Floral Provinces 137 Carl Skottsberg And The Plants Of Southern South America 139 7 Plant Cultivation 141 The Origins Of Agriculture 142 The Story Of Wheat 145 The Story Of Rice 147 The Story Of Corn 149 The Story Of Cotton 151 Captain Bligh, HMS Bounty, and the Breadfruit Trees 153 Tea, And How Bodhidharma Stayed Awake 156 Coffee, And Kaldi’s Goats 157 How Brazil Acquired Its Name 158 Sir Hans Sloane, Milk Chocolate, And The British Museum 159 How Rubber Moved To Asia 161 8 Evolution of Plants 164 Adolphe-théodore Brongniart, Father Of Paleobotany 164 Charles Darwin And Evolution By Means Of Natural Selection 166 Asa Gray And The Discontinuous Distribution Of Plants 169 Göte Turesson And Plant Ecotypes 172 Nikolai Vavilov And The Origin Of Cultivated Plants 173 9 Plant Physiology 178 Nehemiah Grew, Plant Reproduction, And Comparative Anatomy 178 Marcello Malpighi And The Microscopic Study Of Plants 180 Robert Hooke And The Cell 181 Stephen Hales, The Movement Of Sap, And Transpiration 183 Joseph Priestley And Fdephlogisticated Airf 186 Phlogiston 188 Erasmus Darwin And 190 Matthias Schleiden, Theodor Schwann, And Cell Theory 192 Robert Brown, The Cell Nucleus, And The Study Of Pollen 193 10 Ecology of Plants 196 Christen Raunkiær And The Way Plants Grow 197 Josias Braun-blanquet And The Sociology Of Plants 199 Gustaf Du Rietz And Communities Of Plants 200 Andreas Schimper And Plant Adaptation To The Environment 201 Carl Georg Oscar Drude And Plant Formations 203 Eugen Warming And The Principles Of Plant Ecology 204 Arthur Tansley And The Plants Of Britain 206 11 Biodiversity and Plant Conservation 208 What Is Biodiversity? 209 The Advance Of Agriculture And The Retreat Of Wilderness 211 National Parks And Nature Reserves 212 Saving The Tropical Forests 214 Conclusion 217 Glossary 219 Further Resources 226 index 230 9780816061020 Life would be impossible without they provide food, either directly or in the form of plant-eating animals,as well as themanyfibers we use, from the timber to build homes and the fuel for heating and cooking to the wood used to make tools and furniture. It is not surprising, therefore, that people have been studying plants for thousands of years. Plants details this search for understanding and some of the individuals who have contributed to it. This new full-color volume begins in ancient Greece, where philosophers first speculated about the origin of plants and where the study of botany began. It also examines medicinal plants, which were considered the prime concern for the founders of botany. This book recounts the adventures of some of the most famous plant collectors as well as the system of plant classification used by today's scientists. Describing the early developments of ecology, Plants ends with an explanation of biodiversity and why scientists think it's important. Chapters