Arte e Ciência na representação botânica do século XIX: dos herbários às artes decorativas

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Madeira giant bellflower (Musschia aurea), an endemic species from Madeira, in the botanical literature of the 18th and 19th centuries

Publication . Mesquita, Sandra; Castel-Branco, Cristina; Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de

Musschia aurea (Linnaeus f.) Dumortier, Madeira giant bellflower, is a plant species endemic to the Madeira Archipelago, first discovered and described in the late 18th century. As part of a broader investigation on the evolution of the knowledge of Madeira’s plants up to the 19th century, research was conducted to locate references and illustrations of Musschia aurea produced or published during the 18th and 19th centuries. We were able to retrieve 15 illustrations depicting the whole plant or details of it, comprising 3 original paintings and 12 printed illustrations, as well as several references in books about botany and gardening and catalogues of several of Europe’s leading botanic gardens. The presence of Musschia aurea in historical records touches critical moments in the history of botany and taxonomy; in the history of botanical illustration, having been depicted by famous illustrators, such as Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Sydenham Edwards and James de Carle Sowerby; and in the history of gardening and horticulture. Although the plant rapidly spread through the gardens of the European aristocracy and ruling families at the turn of the 18th century, its presence in nurseries was scarce, and there is no evidence that the Madeira giant bellflower became popular as an ornamental plant. Nevertheless, it is still present in the collections of most botanic gardens in Europe.

2021Journal article

Open access

BiographicaI notes on Mary Young and Caroline Norton, illustrators of Madeiran plants for curtis's botanical magazine in the 19th century

Publication . Mesquita, Sandra; Castel-Branco, Cristina; Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de

In 1834 and 1835, ten plates based on illustrations by ‘Miss Young’ and the ‘Hon. Miss Norton’ were published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine to illustrate texts prepared by Richard Thomas Lowe and sent through his friend William Jackson Hooker. Mary Young is listed in the Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists Including plant col lectors, flower painters and garden designers, for this contribution and the illustrations in Lowe’s History of Fishes of Madeira, as ‘companion to Miss Norton’. No other contributions of these illustrators are mentioned, and little is known about them. Here we present more information concerning these two illustrators and their part in Lowe’s work on the flora and fish fauna of Madeira.

2021Journal article

Open access

Documenting the flora of a diversity hotspot: Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) and his botanical exploration of Madeira island

Publication . Mesquita, Sandra; Carine, Mark; Castel-Branco, Cristina; Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de

Oceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale, the extent of their plant diversity remains imperfectly known. Both natural characteristics and historical factors have shaped the development of knowledge of island floras. In this paper, we investigate the approach of Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874), to documenting the flora of Madeira island in the North Atlantic. Lowe collected abundantly in Madeira between 1826 and 1873, resulting in several works on Madeira’s flora, pub lished from the 1830s. At a time when taxonomic research on island floras was often based on limited collections made during brief expeditions, Lowe’s research on the flora, spanning almost half a century, was exceptional. In this study, 2579 herbarium specimens collected by Lowe were georeferenced and used to investigate temporal, spatial and taxonomic patterns in Lowe’s collecting activities. We also examine the distribution of specimens by Lowe to other botanists. Some biases are evident in Lowe’s collecting efforts, with steep slopes under-sampled and coastal sites over-sampled. These reflect constraints imposed by topography and transport links. These limitations aside, Lowe’s work on the Madeiran flora was conducted in a systematic manner, resulting in a comprehensive study of the entire flora. His approach was distinctly modern: he gathered and studied all available information in herbaria and in the pub lished and unpublished writings from earlier visitors; his initial fieldwork was conducted widely to gain knowledge of all habitats and their floras; later fieldwork focussed on less-explored and most promising areas; duplicates were sent to other botanists, facilitating taxonomic exchanges on critical taxa; and his later fieldwork focussed on plant groups where taxonomic problems had been detected. As a result of Lowe’s sustained and systematic approach, he is the single most prolific contributor to the study of Madeira’s endemic flora. His approach is a model to documenting island floras still relevant today. Areas poorly sampled by Lowe were areas that were difficult to access, which also protected them from anthropic destructive activities and allowed them to serve as refuges for endemic flora. Those areas deserve particular attention in efforts to complete the survey of Madeira’s plant diversity, using technological ad vancements such as drones to prospect areas that are otherwise still largely inaccessible.

2022Journal article

Open access

Richard Thomas Lowe, an unknown Botanical Illustrator

Publication . Mesquita, Sandra; Castel-Branco, Cristina; Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de

Illustration is undoubtedly part of botanical history. In the early 19th century, as botanical Latin yielded more accurate descriptions, the need for illustration in scientific publications decreased. Nevertheless, advances in printing processes boosted the production of illus trated botanical periodicals at accessible costs. Therefore, coloured depictions of plants never ceased to be part of botany at all levels. Richard Thomas Lowe (1802-1874) studied the flora of Madeira from 1826, when he first visited the island, to his death. He is well known as the author of Madeira’s first comprehensive Flora, but his work as a botanical illustrator is poorly known. We analysed the graphic production related to his first major paper, published in 1831, along with written documents, which, altogether, support a more complete understanding of Rev. Lowe’s botanical work in Madeira and his relevant activity as an illustrator. We believe that joint analysis of illustrations and correspondence show that Lowe himself made the drawings after which the plate of the orchid Goodyera macrophylla in this paper was prepared, whose authorship was, up to now, unknown.

2020Journal article

Open access