Memorial immortality is conferred by having a plant named after one, although, as Hippocrates demonstrates, an oath may be better. The College’s medicinal garden commemorates both the medicines and the physicians of bygone ages, but as knowledge of plants dwindles in the face of the relentless onslaught of the electronic age (only two people out of 20 on a recent Garden tour could identify the cowslip, Primula veris), so does our remembrance of our forefathers.
Some plants honour ancient names
Paeonia officinalis, the glorious peony, commemorates Paeon, physician to the Gods of ancient Greece, who enjoyed the best private practice of the era. See Homer’s Iliad v. 401 and 899 (circa 800 BC) for further details. The roots, hung round the neck, were regarded as a cure for epilepsy for nearly two thousand years, a belief which was incomprehensible until I found, in Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal (1737), that it was used for febrile fits in children, associated with teething (which stop whatever one does).
Asclepias incarnata, the American Milkweed, food for Monarch butterfly caterpillars (makes them unpleasant to eat), named for Aesculapius the Greek god of Medicine, who is always accompanied by the goddesses Hygieia (wise-living and hygiene) and Panakeia (cure-alls and panaceas).
Phoenix theophrasti, is the prickly-leaved, Cretan date palm, which remembers the Greek philospher/botanist, Theophrastos (371-287 BC), the ‘Father of Botany’, author of De causis plantarum and Aristotle’s successor.
Acanthus dioscoridis, a spiny-leaved herbaceous plant, was named for Pedanius Dioscorides (40-90 AD), Greek physician and herbalist who practised in Rome. He wrote De Materia Medica, a source of herbal medicinal information for the next 1,600 years.
Musa basjoo, our semi-hardy banana which is in full flower (July 2009),has been linked to Antonius Musa (63-14 BC), physician to the Roman emperor, Octavius Augustus. ‘Musa’ is also the Arabic word for banana.
Some are more recent
Abelia x grandiflora, a pretty ornamental shrub, celebrates the short life of Dr Clarke Abel (1780-1826) one of the first European botanists to collect in China when attached as physician to Lord Amherst in the Peking embassy in 1816-17. Died in India.
Aconitum carmichaelii, Monkshood or Wolfbane, with its dark blue flowersis a plant for the herbaceous border and a source of the neurotoxic alkaloid, aconitine. Named for Dr J.R. Carmichael, English physician, plant collector and Protestant missionary in Guangdong and Shandong, China. In 1862 he took charge of the London Missionary Society Hospital in Canton but in the following year went into private practice. Died in 1877 of ‘famine fever’ in the great famine that afflicted North China at that time.
Arisaema griffithii with its frightening purple spathes, commemorates the physician Dr William Griffith (1810-1845), a British botanist working with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He collected plants in India and Afghanistan and re-discovered the jadeite mines in Burma (1837). He also has an orchid, Dendrobium griffithianum, named after him. Life expectancy in the tropics was short.
Camellia sinensis, the source of tea, commemorates George Josef Kamel (1661-1706) a Jesuit pharmacist, born in Moravia who collected plants in Luzon in the Philippines. We also grow various ornamental camellias.
Dodonaea viscosa, a small shrub from New Zealand, gets its name from the Flemish physician Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585). Dodoen’s herbal, the Cruydeboeck (1554) had over 700 woodcuts of plants, and was translated into Latin as Stirpium historiae pemptades sex (1583), into French by L’Ecluse.
Notes on the Cruydeboeck:
- It was twice translated into English; firstly by Henry Lyte as A niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes (1578) and then by Dr Priest from the College of Physicians, and published by John Gerard (with editing help from Mathias de L’Obel) as his Herball, or General Historie of Plantes (1597).
- Dodoen’s Cruydeboeck owes much to Leonart Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium (1542, 1551 etc) for the sequence of information within the individual descriptions of plants follows that of Fuchs, and not infrequently phrases appear to have been copied verbatim (as deduced from the Latin Pemptades). Dodoens’ woodcut illustrations are similar to those in Fuchs’ 1551 edition.
- Henry Lyte’s translation arranges the plants in quite a different order through the book, and uses woodcut copies (which therefore appear as mirror images) from Fuchs’ herbal.
- Dr Priest’s/Gerard’s translation again arranges the plants in a different order, following that of Mathias de L’Obel’s Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576), using many of the same woodblocks as were used by Dodoens and L’Obel, but using the format of subheadings (nomina, forma, locus, tempus etc.) used by Fuchs.
- Both Gerard and Lyte have woodblocks not found in the herbals of Dodoens or Fuchs.
Dodecatheon meadia named for Richard Mead (1673-1754) FRCP, FRS, physician to St. Thomas’ Hospital and later to King George II. He was immensely rich. His painting hangs in the College.
Ephedra gerardiana, is a primitive plant from which ephedrine and amphetamines were synthesised. It looks like a ‘mare’s tail’ (Equisetum) and is named for James Gilbert Gerard (1794-1828) an army surgeon in India who collected plants in the Himalayas (and not for John Gerard the 16th/17th century surgeon/herbalist).
Fothergilla gardenii, a small shrub with fragrant, bottle-brush flowers, is named, firstly, for the Quaker physician Dr John Fothergill (1712-1780), FRS, FRCP, the greatest plant and shell collector of the age. Secondly, for Dr Alexander Garden (1730-1791), Scottish-born physician and naturalist from South Carolina, (after whom Gardenia was also named). We have a portrait of Fothergill at the College.
Gaultheria procumbens from North America has heather-like, bell-shaped flowers and scarlet berries. It was named for the French physician and botanist from Quebec, Jean François Gaultier (1708-1756).
Fuchsia triphylla, discovered by Charles Plumier in Hispaniola in 1696/7, was named by him for Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), German Professor of Medicine, whose illustrated herbal, De Historia Stirpium (1542) attempted the identification of the plants in the Classical herbals. It also contained the first accounts of maize, Zea mays,and chilli peppers, Capsicum annuum. then recently introduced from Latin America. We also grow Fuchsia magellanica.
Greyia sutherlandii from South Africa is named after the physician Dr. Peter Cormack Sutherland (1822–1900), Aberdeen, Surveyor-General of Natal in 1855. The genus Sutherlandia is named after James Sutherland (1639-1719), Professor of Botany in Edinburgh.
Halesia carolina the snowbell tree with its white bells and orange stamens, named for Dr Stephen Hales DD, FRS (1677-1761), Perpetual Curate of Teddington, Middlesex who was the first man to measure blood pressure (in a horse) and sap pressure in trees.
Heuchera cultivars, North American woodland plants, are named after Johann Heinrich von Heucher (1677-1747), professor of Medicine in Wittenburg, Germany. Knautia macedonica honours Christof Knaut (1638-1694) a German doctor and botanist.
Kniphofia caulescens is a spectacular ‘Red Hot Poker’ from South Africa which commemorates Dr Johannes Hieronymus Kniphof (1704-1763), professor of medicine at Erfurt University in Germany.
Lavatera olbia, the tree mallow, is named after J.R. Lavater, 17th century physician and naturalist from Zurich.
Lilium henryi commemorates Dr Augustine Henry (1857-1930) who collected plants in China and Taiwan while working for Britain’s China Maritime Customs Service (from 1881). He discovered this orange-flowered lily in his travels in I Chang, Szechuan, in 1889 and brought it back to Kew, where it flowered in August of that year. He was of Irish stock, educated in Ireland but qualified in medicine in Edinburgh and became a fluent speaker of Chinese. He sent back to Kew some 15,000 herbarium specimens and 500 plants to Kew, from which 25 new genera and 500 new species were described. Later he co-edited the Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, and became Professor of Forestry at Trinity College, Dublin.
Lobelia tupa, has fiery red flower scapes and leaves which were smoked by the Mapuchu Indians of Chile for their rather special effects (not recommended!). The genus was named after Mathias de L’Obel (1538-1616), Flemish botanist and physician to James 1 of England and author of the beautifully illustrated herbal, Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576). We also grow the scarlet L. cardinalis and the sky-blue L. syphilitica. The latter was sold as a ‘secret cure’ to gullible British colonists by North American Indians as a cure for syphilis. John Lindley noted (1838) ‘... European practice does not confirm its American reputation’.
Lindera benzoin is named after Johann Linder (1676-1723) a Swedish botanist and physician.
Listera ovata (sadly, this is now Neottia ovata) is the Common Twayblade, a rather dull European orchid. It was named after Dr Martin Lister (1638-1712), FRCP, physician to Queen Anne.
Monarda ‘Violet Queen’, the bee-balm and bergamot, commemorates Nicholas Monardes (1493-1588), physician and botanist from Seville, who published Joyfull Newes out of the newe founde Worlde (1577) about items from North America.
Muehlenbeckia complexa commemorates Dr. Henry Gustav Muehlenbeck (1798-1845) who investigated the flora of Alsace. This tangled creeper from New Zealand was the food for the moas, giant flightless birds which were eaten into extinction by the indigenous peoples, so upsetting the myth of them living in harmony with nature.
Primula sieboldii, a pretty Japanese primrose, is named for Dr Phillip von Siebold (1796-1866), a German physician/botanist/zoologist who worked in Japan and introduced many new plants to Europe. His daughter Oine (1827-1903) was the first practising female physician in Japan.
Scopolia carniolicais a source of scopolamine, used as a premedication prior to surgery. We grow the yellow-flowered var. brevifolia and the brown-flowered var. carniolica. Both are endangered from over-collection in the wild. It commemorates the Italian physician, botanist, geologist, and chemist, Prof. Giovanni Anton Scopoli (1723-1788).
Tigridia pavonia with its colourful tulip-like flowers, and the little herbaceous Pavonia hastata, are named for Joseph Pavón, 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. Pavonia hastata has pale green, balloon-like flowers that do not open, self-pollinating without outside help.
Westringia fruticosa, coast rosemary from New Zealand, commemorates Dr John Peter Westring (1753-1833), physician to the King of Sweden and a keen lichenologist.
Zantedeschia aethiopica, a luxuriant South African plant, with spectacular white blooms, probably commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia.
Finally, to revert to Hippocrates, we have a descendant of the Plane tree, Platanus orientalis subsp. insularis,from the island of Cos, alleged to be the one under which Hippocrates taught his medical students. Planted in 1965, it now towers over the College, bestowing – one may be confident – ancestral benedictions.