Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Plant Lists from ‘Olde’ Madras (1698–1703)


Affiliations
1 Charles Sturt University and Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University, P.O. Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
 

Samuel Browne, a surgeon attached to the Military Hospital at Fort St George, Madras (1688–18), collected plants from villages around Madras (c. 30 km radius) and once from Tirupati (120 km). The collected plants were sent to the Royal Society of London, where James Petiver – an apothecary, botanist, entomologist, natural historian – determined and later published them in the Philosophical Transactions (of the Royal Society of London) between 1698 and 1703. Presently, the materials sent by Browne are stored at the Natural History Museum, London, under Sloane’s collections, because Hans Sloane acquired Petiver’s plant collections, which include Browne’s dispatches from Madras sent in 1696. By the present standards, the descriptions of plants provided by Petiver are awkward and complex, because of the then prevalent system of polynomial system of nomenclature using Latin descriptors, mixed with Indian vernacular (Tamil) names as supplied by Browne in his notes. Nonetheless, this set of papers is a valuable source of information for understanding the nature and diversity of the flora in the dry, semi-arid segments of the present Tamil Nadu and adjoining segments of Andhra Pradesh of the 1700s. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the forgotten and ignored pages of the botanical history of Madras and clarify the basic details available in these papers, so that they could be explored extensively by competent botanists of the Coromandel to bring out the science of plants they include.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Stephen, L. (ed.), Samuel Brown. In Dictionary of National Biography, Smith, Elder & Co, London, 1886, vol. 7.

  • Dandy, J. E. (ed.), The Sloane Herbarium: An Annotated List of the Horti Sicci Composing it, with Biographical Accounts of the Principal Contributors, The British Museum, London, 1958, p. 246.

  • Love, H. D., Vestiges of Old Madras 1640–1800, Volume 1, John Murray, London, 1913, pp. 549–565.

  • Mathiharan, K., Am. J. Forens. Med. Pathol., 2005, 26, 254–260.

  • Stearns, P., Proc. Am. Antiquarian Soc., 1952, 62, 243–365.

  • Petiver, J., Musei Petiveriani: Centuria Prima Rariora Naturæ Continens: viz. Animalia, Foffilia, Plantas, ex Varils Mundi Plagis Advecta Ordine Digesta, et Nominibus Propriis Signata, S. Smith & B. Walford, London, 1695, 93 + 2 pages.

  • Weiss, H. B., J. N Y. Entomol. Soc., 1927, 35, 411–414.

  • Browne, S. and Petiver, J., Philos. Trans., 1700–1701, 22, 579–595.

  • Vyas, R., Ancient Sci. Life (Suppl. 2), 2013, 32, S47; doi:10.4103/0257–7941. 123863.

  • Srikanth, N., Tewari, D. and Mangal, A. K., World J. Pharm. Pharm.. Sci., 2015, 4, 388–404.

  • Manilal, K. S. (ed.), van Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus English Edition: With Annotations and Modern Botanical Nomenclature, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, 2003, 12 vols, p. 3200.

  • Mohan Ram, H. Y., Curr. Sci., 2005, 89, 1672–1680.

  • Raman, R. and Raman, A., Curr. Sci., 2018, 114, 1358–1366.

  • Jensen, N. T., Med. Hist., 2005, 49, 489– 515.

  • Raman, A., Curr. Sci., 2017, 113, 368– 369.

  • Robinson, T., William Roxburgh: the Founding Father of Indian Botany, Phillimore, Chichester & The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2008, p. 286,

  • Noltie, H. J., Robert Wight and the Botanical Drawings of Rungiah and Govindoo, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2007, 3 vols, p. 420.

  • Desmond, R., Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Traveller and Plant Collector, ACC Art Books, Suffolk, 1999, p. 250.

  • Linnaeus, C., Flora Zeylanica Sistens Planta Indicas Zeylonæ Insulæ; que Olim 1670–1677, Laurentii Salvii, Homiae (= Stockholm), 1747, p. 273.

  • Plukenett, L., Phytographia, sive Stirpium Illustriorum et Minus Cognitorum Icones, Leonard Plukenett, London, 1691–1696, p. 328.

  • Plukenett, L., Almagestum Botanicum sive Phytographiæ Plućnetianæ Onomasticon Methodo Syntheticâ Digestum, Leonard Plukenett, London, 1696, p. 402.

  • Ray, J., Historia Plantarum Species Hactenus Editas Aliasque Insuper Multas Noviter Inventas et Descriptas Complectens: in qua Agitur Primò de Plantis in Genere, ... , Henricum Faithorne, London, 1686, p. 962.

  • Linnaeus, C., Systema Naturæ, sive Regna Tria Naturæ Systematice Proposita per Classes, Ordines, Genera, and Species, Theodorum Haak, Leiden, 1735, p. 12.

  • Hooper, R., Lexicon–Medicum: or Medical Dictionary Containing an Explanation of Terms in Anatomy, Botany, Chemistry, Materia-Medica, Midwifery, Minerology, Pharmacy, Physiology, Practice of Physics, Surgery (Duykinck, E. et al.), New York, 1826, p. 1027.

  • Targioni-Tozzetti, A., Corso di Botanica Medico-Farmaceutica e di Materia Medica, Vincenzo Batelli & Co, Firenze, 1847, p. 785.

  • Bordoloi, A. K., Sperkova, J. and Leclercq, P. A., J. Essent. Oil Res., 1999, 11, 441–445.


Abstract Views: 347

PDF Views: 123




  • Plant Lists from ‘Olde’ Madras (1698–1703)

Abstract Views: 347  |  PDF Views: 123

Authors

Anantanarayanan Raman
Charles Sturt University and Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University, P.O. Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia

Abstract


Samuel Browne, a surgeon attached to the Military Hospital at Fort St George, Madras (1688–18), collected plants from villages around Madras (c. 30 km radius) and once from Tirupati (120 km). The collected plants were sent to the Royal Society of London, where James Petiver – an apothecary, botanist, entomologist, natural historian – determined and later published them in the Philosophical Transactions (of the Royal Society of London) between 1698 and 1703. Presently, the materials sent by Browne are stored at the Natural History Museum, London, under Sloane’s collections, because Hans Sloane acquired Petiver’s plant collections, which include Browne’s dispatches from Madras sent in 1696. By the present standards, the descriptions of plants provided by Petiver are awkward and complex, because of the then prevalent system of polynomial system of nomenclature using Latin descriptors, mixed with Indian vernacular (Tamil) names as supplied by Browne in his notes. Nonetheless, this set of papers is a valuable source of information for understanding the nature and diversity of the flora in the dry, semi-arid segments of the present Tamil Nadu and adjoining segments of Andhra Pradesh of the 1700s. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the forgotten and ignored pages of the botanical history of Madras and clarify the basic details available in these papers, so that they could be explored extensively by competent botanists of the Coromandel to bring out the science of plants they include.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi12%2F2336-2341