science

Palms comprise a group of 181 genera totaling 2600 species of plants in tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate ecosystems. Originating from a single ancestor species but now highly diverse due to adaptive radiation, palms have been economically important since being cultivated in Mesopotamia 5000 years ago. They are the focus of this university dissertation written by Professor Carl Peter Thunberg. In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, professors wrote the dissertations; the student’s job was to explicate and defend it and pay for its publication.

Named for the water nymph in Greek myth who was turned into a laurel tree, daphnes are a genus of 50-60 species of flowering shrubs native to Asia, Europe, and north Africa. Highly scented, they are a favorite garden plant, although the berries are poisonous. They are the focus of this university dissertation written by Professor Carl Peter Thunberg. In 18^th- and 19^th-century Europe, professors wrote the dissertations; the student’s job was to explicate and defend it and pay for its publication.

In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, it was standard practice for university professors to write their students' dissertations; the student's job was to explicate and defend the thesis. At the University of Uppsala (Sweden), first Linnaeus and then Thunberg wrote hundreds of these botanical papers, usually focused on taxonomic and systematic matters — either describing and naming genera and species or analyzing basic issues of classification. The Cullman Library holds dozens of these small, individually published papers, many of them housed in old acidic pamphlet-binders.

Dragon trees are a genus of about 120 species of trees and shrubs in the family Asparagaceae, native almost exclusively to Africa. Some of the smaller species are popular as houseplants and have earned a “green” reputation for their ability to clear pollutants from the air. They are the focus of this university dissertation written by Professor Carl Peter Thunberg. In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, professors wrote the dissertations; the student’s job was to explicate and defend it and pay for its publication.

Aloes form a genus of more than 500 species in the Asphodel family. Native to southern Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and several islands in the Indian Ocean, they have traditionally been used in herbal medicines, which is the focus of this university dissertation written by Professor Carl Peter Thunberg. In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, professors wrote the dissertations; the student’s job was to explicate and defend it and pay for its publication.

Harry Kirke Swann (1871- 1926) was an ornithologist, author, bibliophile, book dealer, and publisher. Since 1921 he was the de facto owner of Wheldon and Wesley, the publishing and antiquarian book firm that attained a legendary status among natural-history book collectors (and served as the Smithsonian's European book agent from the 1860s until about 1960). Swann originally published his Synopsis of the Accipitres in four octavo parts, without plates (London: Wheldon and Wesley, 1919-20); a second edition (1921-22), revised and corrected, was again in octavo and without plates.

Englishman John Ray (1627-1705) is considered by many to be the greatest naturalist of his day, and his works in the fields of botany and zoology are classics of pre-Linnean classification. The Synopsis methodica stirpium brittannicarum, in particular, was the standard botanical authority for many years; it is considered remarkably accurate in its coverage and descriptions of the British flora, and the classification follows a natural sequence, replacing earlier methods with the concept of grouping plants by direct observation of their similarities and differences.

Thomas Martyn was Regius Professor of Botany at Cambridge University and an early adopter of Linnaean classification and nomenclature, which he promulgated in his public lectures. In this work, based on a paper given to the Linnean Society in 1789, he defines hundreds of Linnaean terms and clarifies conceptual aspects of the Linnaean system, which is the foundation for the work of modern researchers at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Within two years of its founding in 1773 the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin (the Natural History Society of Berlin) became one of the most active and important scientific organizations of the 18th century. Its journal, the Beschäftigungen (4 volumes, 1775-1779), contains approximately 120 articles by a roster of prominent European naturalists, covering zoology, mineralogy, geology, conchology, scientific instruments, astronomy, and other scientific subjects, as well as catalogues of the Society's library and cabinet of natural-history specimens.

James Sowerby's British Mineralogy is the first comprehensive illustrated work on mineralogy. Though more than 200 years old, in many ways it has never been superceded. It was issued in parts over 15 years and ultimately contained 550 plates meticulously drawn from actual specimens, engraved and brilliantly colored by Sowerby himself and members of his naturalist/artist family accompanied by descriptive text. It is by common consensus "the supreme work of British topographical mineralogy, [and] the most ambitious colourplate work on minerals ever published" (Conklin).