History of Botanical Science, AG Morton
“Particularly significant is the fact that Ray substituted these terms for the terms “perfect” and “imperfect” which he had originally used for flowering and flowerless, on the grounds that even lower plants (infimi ordinis plantae) are perfect in their own way: a penetrating scientific and physiological acceptance of all plants as equally meriting investigation. ”
A.G. Morton’s History of Botanical Science: an account of the development of botany from ancient times to the present day brings forward new and neglected material on botany, one of the oldest of sciences, and has been written to be accessible to readers with a general interest as well as to professional botanists (although we must admit, at least from our perspective, it leans heavily on the latter). Morton was struck by the lack of a history of botany as seen from the standpoint of the present day - published in 1981, History of Botanical Science describes the development of botany from The Origin of Botany as a Science to The Dark Ages of Botany in Europe, Enlightenment and Revolution in Botany and Botany in the Twentieth Century.
We picked this up in a charity shop in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute after its cover caught our eye, a 15th century botanical drawing against a fern green background, with a spine bleached by the sun.
A.G. Morton was Emeritus Professor of Botany of London University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. (We can’t find much information about them at all… if anyone has anything to add please get in touch!)
