botanical exploration and floras in syria and lebanon 1750-1950 lytton john musselman old dominion...

Botanical Exploration and Floras in Syria and

Lebanon 1750-1950

Lytton John MusselmanOld Dominion University

16 October 2008

Botanical Exploration and Floras in Syria and

Lebanon 1750-1950

Lytton John MusselmanOld Dominion University

Botanical Exploration and Floras in Syria and

Lebanon 1750-1950

Botanists and Floras

Current Status of their Herbaria

What can we learn from their activities?

Botanists and Floras

The Botanists 1750-1950

Andre Michaux 1746-1802

Edmond Boissier 1810-1885

Charles Isodore Blanche 1825-1887

Botanists and Floras

Some Botanical Pioneers 1750-1950

George Edward Post 1838-1909

John Edward Dinsmore 1862-1951

Francois Andre Michaux 1746-1802

Born near Versailles, France

Died in Madagascar

Best known for his work in North America but started out in the Levantaccompanying the new French consul,Rousseau, bound for Persia.

Landed at Iskanderun 31 March 1782

. . .Antakya 11 April 1782

. . .Halab 14 April 1782

Visited Latakia while waiting in Halab

From Halab, Michaux sent back toParis herbarium specimens, seeds, and archeological artifacts.

. . . and on to Baghdad and Persia

??

Because of his success in the Levant, Michaux was appointedKing’s Botanist to the United Statesand became a pioneer botanistthere as well.

In the southernUnited States, Michaux is bestknown for histreatment of trees

Botanists in thesoutheasternUnited States comein contact withMichaux constantlyeither with plants named by or for him

Rhus michauxii, afederally endangeredspecies we are studying

Michaux is appropriatelycommemoratedin the beautifulgenus Michauxiawhich is commonin the region of theLevant he traveled.Michaux collected but did not describethe genus.

Michauxia campanuloides

Michaux’s specimens are in a special herbarium at the

L'HERBIER DU MUSÉUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE

“On peut citer les herbiers de JUSSIEU, de LAMARCK, de TOURNEFORT, d'ADANSON, de HUMBOLDT & BONPLAND,

de MICHAUX, de DESFONTAINES ... “

Pierre Edmond Boissier 1810-1885

Born and died in Geneva

Independently wealthy, Boissier devoted himself tobotany under the tutelageof the great Alphonse de Candolle.

Boissier traveled extensively but madeonly one trip to the Middle East, in1845/1846 to Egypt, Arabia, Palestineand Syria.

His great contribution to botany wasthe Flora Orientalis, completed in 1884which covered a large part of westernAsia, a remarkable undertaking for itstime.

Approximate area covered by the Flora Orientalis

He excluded most of Asian Turkey for biogeographical reasons

Boissier’s florawas revolutionaryby being multi-volume and meticulously documented byherbarium specimens.

Boissier and his co-workers placedspecial emphasis on herbarium

specimens. His specimens are extantin the Boissier Herbarium at the

Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève.

Boissier Herbarium building, Geneva

Charles Isodore Blanche 1823-1887

Little is known of his life

Blanche was a student of Boissier and regularly collectedfor him and sent material toGeneva from Tripoli where helived for some time.

Blanche apparently collected throughout the region as this label from the mountainssuggests.

GeorgeEdwardPost

1838-1909

Born in New York CityDied in Beirut

Archives of natural history 33 (2): 282–301. 2006 © L. J. Musselman 2006.

The botanical activities of George Edward Post (1838–1909)

LYTTON JOHN MUSSELMANDepartment of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0266, USA (e-mail:lmusselm@odu.edu).

I have discussed his life elsewhere

Studied Latinat age of six. Graduated withhonors from City College of New York in 1854 atage 16. M. S. degree in1857.

Little is known of Post’sformal training in botany.Physicians trained in the mid-1800s were required to take Materia medica and other plant-oriented courses.

Post began an herbarium as a teenager, perhaps in company with his father whoalso collected plants.

Early Years

Post settled in Tripoli in 1863 and began medical practice and study of Arabic.

Modern day Tripoli from the harbor.

Soon after settling in Tripoli,Post collected plants. Between1866 and 1869 he visited several areas in modern dayLebanon and Syria.

In Tripoli, Post became acquainted withBoissier’s student, C I Blanche, whoannotated some of Post’s specimens

In 1869 he moved to Beirut wherehe remained the rest of his life.

He was appointed Professor of Surgery at Syrian Protestant College, now the

American University of Beirut

Post joined an illustrious groupof scholars including CorneliusV. A. Van Dyck,Professor of Chemistry and Surgery.

In a paperpublished in 1848,Van Dyckbemoaned thelack of botanicalresearch in theregion.

Thus, Post began his botanical careerin the Levant with

*botanical training as an undergraduate

*contact with the leading botanist ofthe Orient, Boissier, through Blanche

*a faculty committed to botanicalresearch

He immediately began work on establishing a botany program at the college by*extensive field work

*correspondence and exchange withleading botanists

*publishing

*establishment of an herbarium

These expeditions were fornatural history and archeology.

Expeditions

He visited Sinai in 1883 and also traveled down the Nile.

Post had an interest in archeology. He led to an expedition to Palmyra

(Tadmur) in 1890.

Post collected many plants from the Hauran Region southeast of Damascus and named new taxa.

These includeChaerophyllum auranitacum,Cynara auranitica, Dianthus auraniticus, and Ferulago auranitica.

Post also received specimens from Mardin and vicinity from an unknown source (Mrs. Shepard?) and named these new species: Nepeta mardinensis and Verbascum mardinense.

Mrs Shepard, was a physician living in Aintab (Gaziantep).

He named several plants in her honor including Achillaea shepardi, Astragalus shephardi, Campanula shepardi,Centaurea shepardi, Erigeron shepardi, Knautia shepardi, Medicago shepardi, and Nepeta shepardi.

Post incorporated Shepard’s specimensunder his own name.

Labels from the typeSpecimen of Ferulago kurdica.

Cyprus 1898

Papaver postiii Fedde

Post visited western Turkey on several occasions to represent the medical

college to Ottoman authorities and to visit his son, Bartram Van Dyck Post, a

Professor of Botany and Zoology at Robert

College.

Bartram Van Dyck Post carried on thePost family tradition of botany. He

published one of the first floras of theBosphorus region.

Examples of Post’s labels from Turkey.

His last trip to Turkey was apparentlyin 1903.

Post maintained contact with leading botanists not only in theMiddle East but in Europe and North America. Collections fromthese botanists enriched his herbarium.

Post’s copy of Boissier where he wrote many notesincluding this underlineof Boissier’s view onevolution.

“For my part, I never accepted to any degree the Darwinian theory. . . .”

Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden,Edinburgh

Correspondents-ExchangeSpecimens extant in Post Herbarium

Boissier(collected byHaussknecht)

Gaillardot

Hulsen

LeTourneux

Tauscher

Schweinfurth,who sent plants from Egypt.

Inscription in Schweinfurth’sFlora Aethiopiens to Dr. G. Post by J. Ascherson

Aznavour

Annotations

The numerous annotations on specimens in the Post Herbarium

attest to its international importance.

Botanists who examined specimensinclude

Alexander Eig,Jerusalem

Nikolay Ivanoich Vavilov,St. Petersburg

In addition to specimen exchange,Post carried on extensive correspondence with world botanists.

To date, I have located letters from the following:

Autran, Boissier Herbarium, GenevaBalfour, Royal Botanic Garden, EdinburghBaker, Royal Botanic Gardens, KewBarbey, Boissier Herbarium GenevaBoissier, Boissier Herbarium GenevaCarruthers, British Museum-Natural History, LondonDenslow, University of Massachusetts, USAGibelli, Botanical Garden, TurinGray, Harvard University, USAHooker, Royal Botanic Gardens, KewSchweinfurth, EgyptThistleton-Dyer, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Plants Named for George Post

GeneraPostia Boiss. et Blanc. Postiella Kljuykov

SpeciesCentaurea postii Boiss.

Papaver postii FeddeTracheliopsis postii Buser

Papaver postii

Did Post “specialize” inany groups? His interestspanned all angiospermsbut he named more species(14) of Verbascum than anyother group including:

Verbascum aintabicum, V. aliciae, V. antari, V. barbeyi, V. boissieri, V. caudatum, V. fruticulosum, V. gadarense, V. karyeteini , V. macranthum, V. mardinense, V. palmyrense, V. porteri, and V. qulebicum. Lebanese species

of Verbascum

Botanical publications of George Post

Post’s florafirst appearedin Arabic butapparently onlythe first volumewas completed.

Post’s florafirst appearedin Arabic butapparently onlythe first volumewas completed.

Plants of Syria and Palestineand the Egyptian sector and

their deserts.

Volume one which includes forty nine families from the

Ranunculaceae to the Cornaceae. Written by Dr. George Post, member

of the Torrey Botanical Club, New York and the Botanical Society

of Edinburgh and former teacher of botany at the Evangelical School

Beirut.

Printed in Beirut 1884

In addition to his better known botanical works, Post edited a medical journal in Arabic and translated several books.

Post’s best knownwork. It was completed in 1896after being issuedin parts over a period of about 19years.

126 Families

830 Genera

3500 Species

Most of the plants named by Postwere described in a series calledPlantae Postianae published by theBoissier Herbarium in Geneva.

Post also contributedflora and fauna entries forseveral widelydistributed Bibledictionaries.

Post Script—George EdwardPost and the Post Herbarium

The herbarium of George Post

Post Hall on the AUB campus

In 1904, theherbarium was moved to Science Hall (later called Post Hall) where it apparently remained until 1953. It is now housed in the Faculty of Agriculture.

Components of the Collection

1. Collections ofGeorge Post--the bulk of the herbarium.

2. Specimens addedafter Post, i.e., after1909.

Post Collection

• Specimens collected by George Post.• Specimens obtained by exchange.• Materia Medica.• Economic Botany Collection.• Tropical Ferns-Dodge collection.• Bryophytes from Ceylon and Hawaii.• Fungi from Budapest Museum.

• TOTAL: Ca. 60 000 specimens

The post-Post Post Herbarium

• Alfred Ely Day was appointed Professor of Botany after Post’s death in 1909.

• In 1922, the herbarium was apparently transferred to pharmacy. Day was appointed Professor of Botany in Pharmacy.

The post-Post Post Herbarium

• John Edward Dinsmore of the American Colony in Jerusalem begin his revision of Post’s flora in the 1920’s.

• This led to the cataloging of all the specimens in the herbarium in the 1930’s.

The post-Post Post Herbarium

Catalog prepared by Tateos V. Yegavian in 1930-31. Yegavian was a business student.

Each sheet is recorded with name, synonym, collector, location, annotation information, and date.

The post-Post Post Herbarium

This catalog provides an accurate account of the collection as itexisted in the early 1930 and can beconsulted to see which of the originalspecimens are still intact.

The post-Post Post Herbarium

At least up to 1931, some curatorialwork was done in the herbarium.

Elie Hammam was an Instructor of Botany who Dinsmore corresponded with regarding herbarium matters. (Hamman met his untimely death falling off Mt. Sannine at age 23).

John Edward Dinsmore

Born 1862 in Winslow, Maine

Died 1951 in Jerusalem

Despite his contribution to botany very little is known about Dinsmore

John Edward Dinsmore

A. B. 1883A. M. (Medical Degree) 1884

M. S. 1886

John Edward Dinsmore

Headmaster at Lincoln Academy,Newcastle, Maine

1893-1896

American Colony, Jerusalem

Founded in 1881 by a Christian utopiansociety, disbanded ~1950

After 1930,it was no longer a religiousorganization

Dinsmore joined the American Colonyin Jerusalem in 1898 accompanied

by his wife and daughter. His daughter married a colony member and lived in

Jerusalem.

American Colony, Jerusalem

Dinsmore obviously joined this commune on religious convictions asmembers did not initially believe in schooling their children nor did they

believe in professional medical treatment.

The American Colony established a successful seed store in which

Dinsmore worked. He also taught inBritish government schools in

Jerusalem.

While at the American Colony,Post and Dinsmore had contact

From Post’s personal annotated copy of his flora. Jafet Library, AUB.

Dinsmore maintained contact withthe Post Herbarium after Post died

In this letter for a recipefor poisoning, Dinsmorementions specimens sent from the HebrewUniversity to Beirut wherehe obviously had contact.

Like Post, Dinsmore communicatedwith the herbarium in Genevaand corresponded with the

director, Chodat, and the conservator,Beauverd

Dinsmore Publications

I. Revised Post Flora 1935

II. Nomenclature

III. Pamphlets

144 Families

956 Genera

4215 Species

Dinsmore states part of this increasein number of taxais due to includingcultivated plants

126 Families

830 Genera

3500 Species

Keys in thePost/Dinsmoreflora are difficult,if not impossible,to use

Pistil 1, but styles or stigmas sometimes multiple. Ovary 8-30 celled; ovules on septa; aquatics. Nymphaeaceae, iv Ovary 5-celled; stamens 1-adelphous; anthers reniform. Hibiscus, 169 Ovary of 5 cells united (at maturity) by twisted styles. Monsonia, 179 Ovary 5-celled; stamens 10-12; saprophytic. Monotropa, 536

Ovary 2-5-celled.

New figures were drawn by a teacher inthe AUBprep schoolfrom liquidpreservedspecimens.

333 new figures wereprepared.

Postia is nowin the genusRhanteriopsis

Fasciculus 1 deals largely withvalid publication of names usedby Post but not described.

Fasciculus 2 includes additions andcorrections for the Dinsmore floraas well as 14 new species of Irisand 1 Tulipa.

Like other botanists of the Levant,Dinsmore paid special attention toIris.

Irises were apparently a specialty of the Colony Seed Store, Vester and Co.

This publicationreflects the interestof the Colony’s seed and gardenbusiness.

In addition to the revision of the Post flora, Dinsmore apparently publisheda booklet on Iris aswell as this pamphlet.

Many of his specimens are at Amsterdam, Lund, and Harvard.

Botanists and Floras

The Botanists 1750-1950

Andre Michaux 1746-1802Edmond Boissier 1810-1885Charles Isodore Blanche 1825-1887George Edward Post 1838-1909John Edward Dinsmore 1862-1951

What can we learn from these pioneers?

*Dedication

*Exploration

*Communication--Floras and other publications

*Documentation--Herbaria

Thanks!!

شكرا