Botany: Historical Development
Botany: Historical Development Because civilization rests in part on a knowledge of plants and their cultivation, botany can be said to have originated with the first cultivation of crops, which may date from 9000-7000 bc. Not until about 2300 years ago, however, did humans become interested in plants for their own sake. Thus, botany as a pure science began in the 4th century BC with the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, whose treatises on the classification, morphology, and reproduction of plants heavily influenced the discipline until the 17th century. Indeed, modern botany began to develop only about the 16th century, at least in part because of the invention of the microscope (1590) and of printing with movable type (1440). The Greeks believed that plants derived their nourishment from the soil only. Not until the 17th century did the Belgian scientist Jan Baptista van Helmont show that, although only water was added to a potted willow, it gained nearly 75 kg (165 lb), whereas the so