A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 28: Plant Growth Studies During the 1700s

Abstract

During the 1600s naturalists made significant progress in describing and illustrating plant anatomy. Development of microscopes both stimulated and aided such studies. Foremost contributors were Marcello Malpighi (Adelmann 1966, I:384–417, 423–426, Belloni 1974), and Nehemiah Grew (Metcalfe 1972, LeFanu 1990), and to a lesser extent, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (Egerton 2006a:54–55). They found minute pores (stomata) that seemed to indicate that plants interact with the air (Nash 1957:335). Achievements in plant physiology during the 1600s were more modest. Botanical researchers had established that over time a tree seedling in a tub with a weighed amount of dirt gains weight if watered regularly (apparently showing that wood came from water), and that cuttings from some plants gain weight if their stems are left in water (Egerton 2004). In 1724, Richard Bradley supported the hunch of two correspondents that plants draw nourishment from the air, and Jethro Tull ridiculed him for it (Egerton 2006b:120). A detailed documentary history by Leonard K. Nash, Plants and the Atmosphere 1957, includes a helpful flow chart of ideas and discoveries, 1650–1804, and Oliver Morton's book on photosynthesis and the economy of nature has a concise history of discoveries during the 1700s (2007:325–343).