Posts Tagged ‘botanical letters’
The Vanishing Botanist: Ludwig Leichhardt’s Australian Odyssey
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 20, 1846 On this day, dear readers, we find ourselves transported to the vast, sun-drenched landscapes of Australia, where the Prussian botanist Ludwig Leichhardt (books about this person) penned a poignant letter…
Read MoreJohn Lewis Russell’s Spring Letter: A Botanist’s Affection for Nature and Nephew
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. February 23, 1863 Dearest reader, On this day, John Lewis Russell—botanist, Unitarian minister, and cherished friend of both Thoreau and Emerson—sent a letter overflowing with compassion and reverence for nature to his adult…
Read MoreLenore Elizabeth Mulets: Celebrating Nature’s Stories Through Children’s Literature
Tales of Nature March 1, 1877 Today is the birthday of the children’s author, volunteer, poet, and teacher, Lenore Elizabeth Mulets. Born Nora Mulertz in Kansas, Lenore’s mother died when she was ten. Raised by her uncle’s family, Lenore left for Chicago’s Wheaton College to become a teacher. She found a position in Malden, Massachusetts,…
Read MoreNicholas Alexander Dalzell: The Scottish Botanist Who Linked Forests and Rainfall
The Black Root December 2, 1858 On this day, the Scottish botanist Nicholas Alexander Dalzell was preparing to leave Karachi, the capital of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Before he left, Nicholas sent a box containing nearly 80 plant specimens collected in Sindh to William Joseph Hooker. He also described a drug from India that…
Read MoreEdgar Anderson, Sunflowers, and the Lessons of a Mentor
The Gift of Good Students The botanist Edgar Anderson wrote to his student Charles B Heiser Jr: “Oh stamp collecting, when will taxonomists ever take any interest in being biologists? Once, when I traveled with E.J. Palmer, I went to a good deal of trouble to get a whole sheet of lily pods, and he…
Read MoreRudolph Jacob Camerarius: The Botanist Who Revealed Plant Sexes
Discovery of Sexes in Plants Today is the anniversary of the death of Rudolph Jacob Camerarius, the botanist who demonstrated the existence of sexes in plants. He died in 1721. Camerarius was born in Germany. He was a professor of natural philosophy. He identified and defined the male parts of the flower as the anther,…
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