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  • Seven named physicians and botanists of the Classical world. Watercolour painting.
  • Makers of British botany : a collection of biographies by living botanists / edited by F.W. Oliver.
  • Seven named physicians and botanists of the ancient Greek world. Engraving by J.M. Lohié after C. Bourguignon, called Laguiche.
  • John Ray, with a vignette of Britannia crowning Ray as the prince of English botanists. Stipple engraving by W. Holl, 1804, after T. Uwins and Mary Beale.
  • John Ray, with a vignette of Britannia crowning Ray as the prince of English botanists. Stipple engraving by W. Holl, 1804, after T. Uwins and Mary Beale.
  • Robert Morison (1620-1683), botanist. Oil painting.
  • Knautia macedonica Griseb. Dipsacaceae. Distribution: Macedonia. This honours the brothers Knaut, both physicians and botanists: Christof Knaut (also Knauth, 1638–94) and his brother Christian Knaut (1654–1716). The plant was traditionally used as a compress in its native Balkans to relieve dermatitis and itching. This use is a local survival of what was once a widespread application of this plant and its relations, and is an example of the doctrine of signatures in which the therapeutic benefit of a plant is suggested by some aspect of its anatomy
  • Tigridia pavonia (L.f.)DC. Iridaceae Distribution: Peru. These colourful, tulip-like flowers were named by De Candolle for Joseph (José) Pavón Jiménez (1754-1840), the Spanish pharmacist/botanist who accompanied Hipólito Ruiz and Joseph Dombey on their epic botanising in Peru and Chile (1777-1788) in search of quinine and medicinal plants. On the 8th April 1777, King Carlos III of Spain gave permission for the three botanists and two artists to travel from Spain to America to study the flora of Peru and Chile, then Spanish dominions. Initially around Lima, and then further afield, they collected plants which their artists painted
  • A flowering plant (Milleria quinqueflora) and a monument to the botanist, Philip Miller. Coloured engraving by J. Pass, c. 1816.
  • Abelia x grandiflora R.Br. Caprifoliaceae. Distribution (A. chinensis R.Br. × A. uniflora R.Br.). Mexico, Himalayas to Eastern Asia. Ornamental flowering shrub. The name celebrates the short life of Dr Clarke Abel FRS (1789-1826), one of the first European botanists to collect in China, which he did when attached as physician to the Canton embassy in 1816-17. It has no medicinal uses but is a popular ornamental shrub in the honeysuckle family because it attracts butterflies and has a long flowering period. From June to October it produces a profusion of small, fragrant, pink-flushed, white flowers on long, arching branches. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Gui Crescent Fagon (1638-1717), Physician to Louis XIV. Botanist and chemist. With coat of arms. Edelinck after painting by Rigaud in 1694.
  • Trifolium rubens L. Leguminosae. [Note the Family Leguminosae is preferred over Family Fabaceae as the former allows all the legumes to be in one Family and not three - one Family being the current consensus among botanists]. Red Feather Clover. Distribution: Europe. The white clover, Trifolium repens, is listed as a treatment for arthritis by Linnaeus (1782). This and Trifolium pratense, Red Clover, are the ones most used for pastures. All the clovers have root nodules which fix nitrogen from the air into the soil so have an important role in ensuring soil fertility. Trifolium rubens has the same nitrogen fixing ability, and is used as an ornamental garden plant where it still acts to improve fertility. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Letter from Bolivar in Lima, to Jose gaspar Rodriguez Francia, dictator of Paraguay, asking for the release o fhis good friend the explorer and botanist Aime Jacques Bonpland (1773 - 1858).
  • Letter from Bolivar in Lima, to Jose gaspar Rodriguez Francia, dictator of Paraguay, asking for the release o fhis good friend the explorer and botanist Aime Jacques Bonpland (1773 - 1858).
  • Letter from Bolívar in Lima, to José Gaspar Rodríguez Francia, dictator of Paraguay, asking for the release of his good friend the explorer and botanist Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (1773 - 1858).
  • Letter from Bolívar in Lima, to José Gaspar Rodríguez Francia, dictator of Paraguay, asking for the release of his good friend the explorer and botanist Aimé Alexandre Jacques Bonpland (1773 - 1858).
  • Lonicera periclymenum L. Caprifoliaceae. Honeysuckle Distribution: Europe. This shrubby, fragrant, white-flowered honeysuckle is named for Adam Lonitzer (Lonicerus) (1528–86). German botanist, physician and author of Naturalis historiae opus novum (1551, 1555) and the Kreuterbuch (1557)
  • Libertia grandiflora Sweet, Iridaceae. Tukauki, mikoikoi, New Zealand satin flower. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: New Zealand. Named for Marie Libert, Belgian botanist (1782-1863). No medicinal use. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis Rubiaceae. Cape jasmine - as erroneously believed to have come from South Africa. Distribution: China. Named for Dr Alexander Garden FRS (1730-1791) Scottish-born physician and naturalist who lived in Charles Town, South Carolina, and corresponded with Linnaeus and many of the botanists of his era. The fruits are used in China both as a source of a yellow dye, and for various unsubstantiated medicinal uses. Other species of Gardenia are found in tropical Africa and the roots and leaves have all manner of putative uses. Gardenia tenuifolia is used as an aphrodisiac, for rickets, diarrhoea, leprosy, gall bladder problems, toothache, liver complaints, diabetes, hypertension, malaria and abdominal complaints. It causes violent vomiting and diarrhoea. It, and other species, are used to poison arrows and to poison fish. Some native, muthi medicine, healers regard Gardenia as a ‘last chance’ medicine, given to patients when all else fails – the patient either dies or recovers (Neuwinger, 1996). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Thunbergia alata Sims Acanthaceae. Black-eyed Susan. Tender, perennial herbaceous climbing plant. Distribution: East Africa. Named for Carl Peter (Pehr or Per) Thunberg (1743-1828), doctor, botanist, student of Linnaeus who collected plants in Japan, Sri Lanka and South Africa. He published Flora Japonica (1784)
  • Watsonia pillansii L.Bolus Iridaceae Bugle lily, Distribution: South Africa. Named for Sir William Watson (1715-1787), British botanist and physician, sometime censor at the Royal College of Physicians, London. No medicinal uses. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Watsonia pillansii L.Bolus Iridaceae Bugle lily, Distribution: South Africa. Named for Sir William Watson (1715-1787), British botanist and physician, sometime censor at the Royal College of Physicians, London. No medicinal uses. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Eschscholzia californica Cham. Papaveraceae. Californian poppy. Named for German botanist and physician, Johan Friedrich von Eschscholtz (1793-1831). Distribution: North America. Official state flower of California. Contains berberine, considered a potential source for many new medicines, and numerous alkaloids some of which may have mild anxiolytic activity. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Nosologie méthodique, ou, Distribution des maladies en classes, en genres et en especes, suivant l'esprit de sydenham, & la méthode des botanistes / par Franĉois Boissier de Sauvages, conseiller & médecin du Roi, & ancien professeur de botanique dans l'Université de Montpellier, des Académies de Montpellier, de Londres, d'Upfal, de Berlin, de Florence, &c. Traduite sur la derniere édition latine, par M. Gouvion, docteur en médecine. ... [title continues in note].
  • Nosologie méthodique, ou, Distribution des maladies en classes, en genres et en especes, suivant l'esprit de sydenham, & la méthode des botanistes / par Franĉois Boissier de Sauvages, conseiller & médecin du Roi, & ancien professeur de botanique dans l'Université de Montpellier, des Académies de Montpellier, de Londres, d'Upfal, de Berlin, de Florence, &c. Traduite sur la derniere édition latine, par M. Gouvion, docteur en médecine. ... [title continues in note].
  • Magnolia stellata (Siebold & Zuch.) Maxim. Magnoliaceae. Star magnolia. Small flowering tree. Distribution: Japan. Named for the French botanist and physician, Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Montpelier. Charles Plumier (1646-1704) named a tree on Martinique after him (Magnolia) and the name was continued by Linnaeus (1753). No medicinal use. This is a very ancient genus of flowering plants. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Bergenia ciliata (Haw.)Sternb. Saxifraginaceae. Elephant's ears. Named for Karl August von Bergen (1704-1759), physician and botanist, professor at Viadrina University, Frankfurt. Has hairy leaves, hence ciliata. Distribution: E. Afghanistan, Himalayas, Assam. Used for fevers, diarrhoea, bruises and boils, coughs, renal stones, diabetes, heart disease, haemorrhoids, stomach disorders (Harish et al www.ijabpt.com). It was described in the 1820s so there is no early literature. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Stokesia laevis Greene Asteraceae. Stoke's Aster, Cornflower Aster. Distribution: South-eastern USA. Named by Charles Louis L’Héritier in 1789 for Dr Jonathan Stokes (1755-1831), a member of the Lunar Society and Linnean Society, botanist and physician. Stokes dedicated his thesis on dephlogisticated air [later realised to be oxygen] to Dr William Withering and wrote the preface to Withering’s iconic work On the Foxglove (1785). He also contributed histories on six patients he had treated for heart failure (‘dropsy’) with foxglove leaf, Digitalis, in his medical practice in Stourbridge. He continued at the Lunar Society until 1788
  • Lobelia tupa L Campanulaceae Tabaco del Diablo [Devil's tobacco]. Distribution: Central Chile. Dried leaves are smoked as a hallucinogen by the Mapuchu Indians of Chile. It was also used as a respiratory stimulant. The genus was named after Matthias de L’Obel or Lobel, (1538–1616), Flemish botanist and physician to James I of England, author of the great herbal Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576). Lobeline, a chemical from the plant has nicotine like actions and for a while lobeline was used to help people withdraw from smoking, but was found to be ineffective. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.