STUDENT FIELD JOURNAL

STUDENT FIELD JOURNAL

Name

U N I T E D S TAT E S B O TA N I C G A R D E N C H I C A G O B O TA N I C G A R D E N

C h ic a g o B ota n ic G a r de n

1000 Lake Cook Road Glencoe, Illinois 60022 847.835.5440 U n i t e d S tat e s b ota n ic g a r de n 245 First Street, SW Washington, DC 20024 202.225.8333

The U.S. Botanic Garden is maintained and operated by the Architect of the Capitol. The Chicago Botanic Garden is owned and operated by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.

how to use this activity guide

Welcome to Plants in Print! The history of botanical exploration and the development of printed books have had a huge impact on social and cultural progress around the world.

Use this Field Journal as a guide to explore the exhibit. Read the information on the four panels and look closely at the exhibit illustrations to find answers to questions in this book.

(1450-1600)

Panel 1:

Early Botanical Books

Have you ever heard of

Theophrastus?

_{As a student}

of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.),Theophrastus was one of the first individuals to use a gardenfor teaching and experimentation. In his garden, he recognized four categoriesof plants: trees, shrubs, sub-shrubs, and herbs.

Before the printing press, books were copied by

hand;

therefore, they were not exact copies and were subject to

error.

_{Even after the invention of the printing press, early books were still not}

widely available to everyone.To justify the expense of printing, books had to be important

religiousworks, existing classics,or of great practicalimportance, such as herbals that doctors used to practice medicine.

Find Theophrastus’s book.

What do you notice about it? Who would have been interested in a book like this? Why do you think Theophrastus is called the “father of botany”?

Why do you think printed books were not

widely available

to everyone? What

techniques

were used to copy books?

{ 3 }

(1450-1600)

Panel 1:

Early Botanical books

continued

{ 2 }

Just how important was the

printing press,

anyway?

Thanks to the printing press(which was invented in 1455), books and information became available to more people, which helped fuel the Renaissance.Theophrastus’s manuscript,History of Plants, was translated from Greek into Latin and is one of the earliest botanical books ever printed.This copy was printed in Italy in 1483.The United States was not even discovered yet!

How did the invention of the printing presschange the world?

Explorers were bringing new plants home from

their voyages in

Africa, Asia,

and the

Americas.

These plants found their way into illustrated books that became sources of what was new and desirable in the plant world.These new plants altered the world’s botanical perspectives. Once viewed as only practicalresources, plants changed into beautiful and decorative assets.

Do you see a change in the way plants were depicted based on the

changing views of people?

Looking at the first panel, you can see that some of the first botanical books were

herbals.

_{Herbals served as reference books for physicians}

for treating patients.They also provided a standard, shared core of botanical knowledge that could be used by anyone, rather than just by specialists working in isolation. Dioscorides, a Greek physician, wrote an herbal in the 1st century A.D. that was one of the early bestsellers because it contained

practicalinformation about using plants for everyday remedies.This edition in the exhibit is bilingual— with two columns on each page—one in Greek and one in Latin!

Find an example of an herbal in this section of the exhibit. What features does it have? Explain the connection between plants, herbals, and medicine.

The world was on the verge of

major changes!

Exploration around the world resulted in the discovery of new countries, peoples, and plants. _{While plants had always been sources of food, fiber, and medicine,}

they now could also be viewed as luxuries.These new plants became widely known because of the increasing availability of printed books. In addition, new plants were seen as desirablefor their potential

economicvalue.

What does it mean for a newly discovered plant to have

“potential economic value”?

Why would this concept be an exciting part of plant exploration and discovery? Find a plant in this section of the exhibit that held great

economic value.

Where did it come from? Who valued it and why? Is it still used today?

(1600-1750)

Panel 2:

a common language

for discovery

By this time,

thousands of plants

had been discovered! _{With the}

discovery of so many new plants, there was chaos in understanding them—people in different places had their own unique names for plants. As a result, without a reference system for plants, confusion reigned! There was a great need for a system of organization—one that people could use as a common language to communicate information about plants.

How would a common language and system of organization make communication about plant discoveries easier?

Carolus

Linnaeus,

a Swedish medical student, learned about plants from the native people of Lapland, the northern region of Europe. _Linnaeus

recognized the communication problem that existed regarding plants. People could not understand each other because they used different languages and called plants different names. Linnaeus realized that people needed a common language

so they could communicate plant discoveries...they needed a common system of classificationbased on a plant’s anatomy that could define its relation to other plants.

Find the largest picture of Linnaeus in the exhibit. What is he holding in his left hand? In his right hand? Read the description of the portrait. What is the meaning of each of the objects?

Linnaeus later created and published his own

system

of classification

that he developed as a result of his experiences. _{He compiled his information in a 10-volume book called Species}

Plantarum,in which he created a naming system for plants based on a two-name system called binomial nomenclature.This basic system is still used today.

Bi • no • mi • al bi = two and nomial = name

no • men • cla • ture = a system of names

Look around in the exhibit and find three (3) examples of

Latin

plant names

that show binomial nomenclature. List them here.

1)

2)

3)

This classification system uses

Latin

_{because it is a}

classical language understood worldwide.The first word is the genusname, and is always capitalized.The second word is the speciesname, and is never capitalized.

(1600-1750)

Panel 2:

a common language for discovery

continued

{ 6 }

(1800s)

Panel 3:

exploring the world

{ 7 }

What does

Linnaeus’s classification system look like?

Here are some examples of Latin words that are used as names of species:

rubrummeans “red”

japonicusmeans “from Japan”

officinalemeans “used for medicine”

vomitoriameans “poisonous; makes you vomit if eaten”

The Latin name for a plant is called its scientific name.The everyday name we give a plant is called its common name.

A plant may have many common names, but it will have only one scientific name.

Example:

Scientific name: Setaria parviflora

Common name:Yellow bristlegrass Knotroot foxtail Marsh bristlegrass

Find a plant in the exhibit that

interests you

and write its scientific name. By looking closely at the roots of the words, see if you can figure out their

meanings.

Scientific Name: Meaning:

Linnaeus’s system

became necessary because of the abundance of plants that needed to be

organized,

or classified, in some way. _{After it was}

created, his system led to even more plant exploration and discovery,and enabled explorer-botanists to uncover and communicate many new, fascinating characteristics about their plant findings. Science often works this way—research that is conducted to answer one set of questions or issues often leads to new questions or issues.Linnaeus’s thinking was quickly adopted by his students and colleagues, who carried his message and used his system to improve communication about plant discoveries around the world.

Look closely in the exhibit to find a book by one of Linnaeus’s students. What knowledge did he add to the field of plant studies?

As people explored the world armed with Linnaeus’s system, plant discovery became recognized as a critical part of

the

social, cultural, and political scenes

of

various countries. _{Governments began to sponsor expeditionsto be conducted}

around the world in hopes of finding new plants that had economic potential and were therefore

marketable.In fact, Columbus wasn’t looking for America when he stumbled upon it. He was looking for a shortcut to India, where he was going to look for new spices that, of course, are plants.

So, the search for plantsled to Columbus setting foot on America!

Who was

Mungo Park?

_{Looking for the source of the Niger River in West Africa,}

Mungo Park, a 24-year old Scotsman, described his experiences with plants and people in his book,

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa.Joseph Conrad, an American novelist, called Mr. Park’s tales the “best travel book ever written”.

In this exhibit, which countries sponsored plant expeditions? What motivated the expeditions?

Find the map of

Mr. Park’s travels

in Africa in the exhibit. Can you plot the Niger River to trace his travels? What plant was particularly intriguing to Mr. Park? Why?

(1800s)

Panel 3:

exploring the world

continued

A growing interest in

ornamental plants

emerged.

Ornamental plants are those cultivated simply for their beauty rather than for food or other practical uses. Because of the increasing availability and interest in ornamental plants for those individuals who could afford them,gardensbecame status symbols of a growing middle class that had more money and leisure time than ever before.This was an important indicator of a developing society, as plants were no longer used just for food, medicine, and spices.

Find a book in this section of the exhibit that shows peoples’ interest in gardening and

using plants ornamentally.

How do the illustrations in this book compare to those found in earlier books in the exhibit?

What was all the fuss about

orchids?

_{Queen Victoria, the Queen of}

England, adored plants and promoted gardening. During her reign, orchids became widely popular. People paid high prices for orchids as they were brought back from distant lands. Robert Warner’s

Orchid Albummet the demand from orchid lovers around the world as an encyclopedic reference book of these exotic plants.

Find the Orchid Album.Why do you think orchids were, and continue to be, so popular? Why do people find them

unique and valuable?

List one aspect of orchids that you find interesting.

Communicating information about plants was even better with

illustrations.

_{As the pace of new plant arrivals in}

Europe increased, advanced printing technologies made possible the reproduction of highly detailed,scientific plant illustrations.This new level of detail enabled botanists to communicate their observations with astonishing accuracy.Scientific illustration is still a profession today, and is one way that art and science can be combined.

Find a plant

that appeals to you in this exhibit and sketch it. Write its name and describe it. Be as detailed as you can in both your sketch and your written description. See if a friend can recognize this plant from your sketch and description.

Scientific name:

Your written description:

Your scientific illustration:

{ 10 } { 11 }

(1700-1800)

Panel 4:

discovering America’s plants

The Swedish physician and botanist,

Carl Peter Thunberg,

was one of the most famous students of Linnaeus. _{He used Linnaeus’s}

classification system to name the plants that he discovered on his expeditions to Japan and South Africa. Thunberg is therefore known as the “Japanese Linnaeus” as well as the “father of South African botany”.

Find Thunberg’s book about plants from Japan. What is the scientific

name

of the plant you see illustrated? What is its

common name?

Copperplate engraving

was popular in

the 17th and 18th centuries. _{This is the process through which}

illustrations were engraved on sheets of copper and were characterized by strong lines and fine detail.

How did copperplate engravings help people

communicate

information about plants?

North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida...

exotic?

We take our surroundings for granted today, but everything was new and exotic to Europeans who came to America in the 1700s. John Bartram and his son,William Bartram, were two early American explorers who traveled the land in search of new plants.John Bartramwas employed as the Botanist of King George III. His son wrote Bartram’s Travels,published in 1791, where he tells of his travels to the “exotic” lands of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.The book includes descriptions of encounters with Native American peoples.Linnaeus called John Bartram “the greatest natural botanist in the world” because he had little formal education and was self-taught.

As travelers and explorers were discovering

new plant species

on their

long voyages,

_{it became difficult to get plants and seeds back to their homelands alive. After}

all, long voyages were characterized by shortages of fresh water and plants were subject to death by saltwater spray, drought, and the searing sun.John Ellis,a plant merchant and naturalist, wrote a book providing instructions on how to pack and ship plants and seedsfrom the East Indies and other distant countries so they could survive long voyages. Specifically, he gave instructions to sea captains and physicians on how to bring plants and seeds back alive.

Find the book Bartram’s Travels

in the American section of

the exhibit.

Every place was new and exotic at one time, just as Florida was to Bartram. How would you describe to others the ecosystem, plants, and land where you live?

Find Ellis’s book in the exhibit.

Sea captains

and

physicians

are two very different groups of people. Why was the packing and shipping of plants important to each of them?

Scientific name:

(1700-1800)

Panel 4:

discovering america’s plants

continued

Venus’s fly-trap

was a

newly discovered

marvel

and an eye-opener for explorers and the world of plants. _{In his book, John Ellis described this plant as “a miniature}

figure of a rat-trap with teeth that closes on every fly or insect that creeps between its leaf lobes and squeezes it to death.” Today,Venus’s fly-trap is still one of the most intriguing plants in the world!

Find Venus’s fly-trap in the exhibit.

What is its scientific name? Can you determine the functions of the different parts of the plant from the illustrations? What are the unique adaptations of this plant to its environment?

Scientific name:

Functions:

Adaptations:

What did you discover today? What new questions did you come up with?

What issues are you interested in investigating? Why are plants still important today?

What role do plants play in our society and in our lives? What are some of today’s issues that people

might be able to address using plants?

How could plants be used to

solve some of the world’s problems?