Nature as the Laboratory: Darwinian Plant Ecology in the German Empire, 1880-1900The science of botany underwent a dramatic change in the late nineteenth century. A reform movement originating in Germany took the traditionally destructive approach to the study of plant structure and physiology and transformed it into a study of plant adaptation. The young scientists who initiated this approach were influenced by factors both scientific and political. Darwin's natural selection theory and the German Reich's interest in colonial expansion provided the background for a new botanical methodology, which treated Nature as the Laboratory. The work of these botanists, including Gottlieb Haberlandt, Georg Volkens, A. F. W. Schimper, and Ernst Stahl, influenced the subsequent development of botanical science in the twentieth century and contributed significantly to the emergence of the new science of ecology. In this 1990 book, Eugene Cittadino describes in detail their early careers, their zeal for Darwinian selection theory, and their sometimes hazardous expeditions into exotic environments from Africa to the East Indies. |
Contents
Botany in Germany 18501880 the making of a science and a profession | 9 |
Schwendener and Haberlandt the birth of physiological plant anatomy | 26 |
Overtures to Darwinism | 42 |
Schwendeners circle botanical comradesinarms | 51 |
Physiological anatomy beyond the Reich | 65 |
Beyond Schwendeners circle Ernst Stahl | 82 |
Schimper and Schenck from Bonn to Brazil | 97 |
Teleology revisited? natural selection and plant adaptation | 116 |
The colonial connection imperialism and plant adaptation | 134 |
Toward a science of plant ecology | 146 |
Notes | 158 |
| 187 | |
| 195 | |
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Nature as the Laboratory: Darwinian Plant Ecology in the German Empire, 1880 ... Eugene Cittadino No preview available - 1990 |
Common terms and phrases
A. F. W. Schimper adaptive phenomena Adolf Engler Anton de Bary approach to plant Berichte der Deutschen Berlin biology Bonn Botanical Garden botanical institute botanical research Botanische Zeitung botanists Buitenzorg career cells Darwinian Darwinism Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft discussion early ecologists Eduard Strasburger Engelmann environment epiphytes Ernst Stahl evolution theory Fischer Flora Georg Volkens German German botanists Gottlieb Haberlandt Grisebach Haberlandt habitat Haeckel Heinrich Schenck Hofmeister Ibid idem influence interest investigation Java Jena Julius Sachs Karl Goebel laboratory leaf Leipzig means of protection mechanical Melchior Treub microscopes morphology natural selection nineteenth century organic particular Pflanzen Pflanzengeographie phylogenetic physiological plant anatomy Physiologische Pflanzenanatomie plant adaptation plant anatomy plant communities plant ecology plant geography plant physiology plant structure Pringsheim Privatdozent regions relationship role Sachs's Schleiden Simon Schwendener species study of plant textbook tion trans transpiration Treub tropical plants Tschirch Tübingen Ueber Volkens Volkens's Wilhelm Wilhelm Hofmeister Würzburg Zimmermann
Popular passages
Page 4 - To investigate the problems concerning the economy of plants, the demands that they make on their environment, and the means that they employ to utilize the surrounding conditions and to adapt their external and internal structure and general form for that purpose.