BP

5-15 Billion+:  12 December.  Carbon (the basis of organic life), oxygen, and other elements were created from hydrogen and helium in the fury of burning supernovae.  Having arisen when the stars were formed, the elements of which life is built, and thus we ourselves, might be thought of as stardust.  (Dauber & Muller, 1996) 

3.75 Billion:  Mixed deposits of ferrous and ferric oxide suggest the presence of free atmospheric oxygen.  This could be construed as evidence for photosynthetic activity.  (de Duve, 1995)

3.5 Billion: Origination of the oldest dated stromatolites.  These layered geological formations are built by successive generations of blue green algae (cyanobacteria.) (de Duve, 1995)  Lower Precambrian rocks in South Africa contain what is possibly the earliest known evidence of cellular organisms, resembling blue green algae.  (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

2 Billion:   Data suggest that by this time in the history of the Earth molecular oxygen began to make a significant difference in the nature of the atmosphere.  (de Duve, 1995)

1.6 Billion: Strong evidence indicates that filamentous and unicellular blue green algae existed by this period in the history of the Earth.  (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

900 Million: Late Precambrian deposits at Bitter Springs, Australia, hold numerous kinds of blue-green and green algae.  (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

570 Million: Dawning of the Paleozoic era

395 Million: The lower Devonian period.  The Scottish Rhynie chert deposit from this period is famous for its excellent representation of Rhynia, one of the earliest vascular plants in the fossil record.  By 350 million years BP land plants at last became significant.  By the upper Devonian, Calamites (the giant horsetail) achieved abundance (as represented in strata of that age.)  We know now that seed bearing plants (Archaeosperma and Spermolithus) are represented in upper Devonian deposits. (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

345 Million: Now termed the Mississippian, this period together with the Pennsylvanian (through to 225 million years BP) constitutes the age of coal - the Carboniferous.

136 Million: With deposits from the Cretaceous period we see the first evidence of flowering plants.  (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

BC

50,000      Wild date seed were left in the Shanidar Cave of Northern Iraq.  Also found at that site was evidence that cave dwellers consumed chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns.  (Root, 1980)

17,000+       Excavations at Wadi Kubbaniya, Nile Valley (Egypt) reveal charred remains of 25 different plants, including wild nut sedge tubers, acacia seed, cattail rhizomes, and palm fruit.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

8000+       Wheat and barley were Near Eastern food crops.  In ancient cultures barley was the everyday food of the poor.  Archeologists have learned that by this time people used flint sickles and grinding stones.  The cultivation of grains had an essential role in the development of civilization.

7000         Flax was known in Syria and Turkey, and is apparently the earliest plant source for fiber (linen) as well as an important source of oil (pressed from the seed).  By 5000 B.C. we know that various flax species were involved.  Evidence shows that seed size increased over time, suggesting that humans were selecting for larger seed.

6800         A “large hoard of carbonized lentils,” over 1,000,000 seed, was present in B Yiftah’el, north Israel.  The size of this hoard indicates the lentils were under cultivation.  (Zohary & Hops, 1994)

6500       Faba bean was known in Israel.  Lentil, pea, chickpea, and faba bean constituted the principal pulses for ancient Old World agriculture.

6000         Chili pepper and beans of this date have been discovered in a Peruvian highland valley.  Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) and regular beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are known archaeologically from Peru. (Heiser, 1981) 

5500         In midden levels dating from 5500 to 7000 B.C. in Tamaulipas, Mexico, researchers have discovered evidence of gourds, squashes, beans, and chili peppers.

5000       Corn (Zea mays) was cultivated in Meso-America.  This important grain would be introduced to Europe by Columbus. [See 1550, China]

5000       Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) is reported from the Ho-mu-tu site in Chekiang Prov., China.  Cabbage seed from this period were discovered in earthen jars in Shensi Province (today cabbages make up 1/4 of all expenditures for vegetables among Chinese families).

4000       Cotton seed dating from this time period have been found in Pakistan. 

4000       Grape (Vitis vinifera) is thought to have been cultivated in the area from Afghanistan to the Black Sea.

3000       Sorghum was known in sub-Saharan Africa. [See 1100 B.C., China].

2800         The Fah Shên-Chih Shu details five sacred crops of China: soybeans, rice, wheat, barley, and millet.  (Root, 1980)

2750         A coffin from the Egyptian Saqqara Pyramid was made of six layers of wood veneers, sandwiched and glued together like plywood.  Cypress, juniper, and cedar of Lebanon were used.  (Connor, 1994)

2737         The brewing of tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shen Nung.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

2000                 Pearl millet was cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa.

2000       Since the Bronze Age, olive has figured into the wealth of many Mediterranean populations.

2000        Peach (Prunus persica) and apricot (Prunus armeniaca) were mentioned in Chinese literature before 2000 B.C. It is supposed that apricots were transported to Greece by Alexander the Great.  Certainly the Greeks knew peaches by 332 B.C.  Virgil noted the Persian fruit in Rome, circa 50 B.C.  By 1571 the Spanish had introduced three types to Mexico. [See 1663; 1977]

1550         A 65ft long medical scroll from Egypt (discovered in 1884 by Georg Ebers and named the Ebers Papyrus) lists about 800 medicinal drugs, including many herbs and spices, among them anise, caraway, cassia, coriander, fennel, cardamon, onions, garlic, thyme, mustard, sesame, fenugreek, saffron, and poppy seed.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1485       Hapshepsut, Queen of Egypt, had 31 myrrh trees imported to Egypt for planting at Thebes as homage to the god Amon.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1370       Chemical tests of red fabrics from Tell el ‘Amara, Egypt show the presence of alizarin, a pigment  extracted from madder (Rubia tinctorum.) (Zohary & Hopf, 1994)

1325       Many seed and other plant products were stored in the Tutankhamen tomb, including watermelon, safflower, emmer wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, flax, fenugreek, olive (leaves and oil), almond, date palm, garlic, cumin, and coriander.  (Zohary & Hopf, 1994)

1100       Soybean (Glycine max) long had been domesticated in China. By 300 B.C. it is thought to have become one of two major food crops for northern China, by A.D.100 it was common throughout China and Korea.  Lotus was known as a crop by this time.

1000       Researchers find evidence of peanut cultivation in Peru. 

1000         By this time it is certain that oats were cultivated, most probably originating as weeds in wheat and barley fields.  (Zohary & Hopf, 1994)

c694       Trees bearing wool (cotton) were introduced to Assyria by Sennacherib.

c500         The Susruta-Samhita, an Indian herbal, described 700 different plants of value.  This time period in India also provides the earliest known record of banana.

c500         The oldest known Chinese herbal, the Classical Pharmacopeia of Tzu-I was written.  Although no version of this book has survived since AD 500, a copy was available to Shen Nung, the writer of the Classical Herbal (which was produced as early as 100 BC.)

c500         It is supposed that the radish was introduced to China from Europe.

c400       Hippocrates wrote numerous treatises on medicinal plants, such as saffron, cinnamon, thyme, coriander, mint, and marjoram.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

c399       Condemned to death, Socrates was allowed to administer his own sentence by drinking a potion of poison hemlock, Conium maculatum.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996.)

c300        Theophrastus (ca. 372-287 B.C.), the Father of Greek Botany, taught about plants from his own working knowledge of them, experience reflected in the “Inquiry” (Historia Plantarum) and “Causes” (De Causis Plantarum).  Text covers 550 kinds of plants, including strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), date palm, figs, and water lilies.  His avoidance of more preposterous notions about plants made a seemingly auspicious beginning for botanical study.  During the middle ages, however, the Theophrastan works were generally unavailable, and second-hand versions were corrupted with misinformation - thus the level of botanical knowledge available in writing actually declined.  The rediscovery and printing of his works beginning in 1483 replaced muddled interpretations of plants and helped rekindle an interest in botany. (HNT)

c300       Plants known to the ancient Chinese were discussed by Erh Ya.  Other treatments from the period mention cultivated crops such as yam (Dioscorea esculenta) and taro (Colocasia).

250           By this time the Maya are known to have cultivated cacao intensively in Belize.

241       Annual tribute demanded after the conquest of Sicily allowed Rome to provide wheat cheaply to its citizens.  War in general brought benefits through the capture of productive acreage, the opening of markets for Roman plantation-produced wine, and the taking of slaves.  (Gras, 1946)

216           The south China province of Kweilin (a word that means Cassia Forest) was founded.  The Kwei River could be translated as the Cassia River.  (Rosengarten, 1969) Cassia refers to the Chinese form of cinnamon, the more pungent Cinnamomum cassia.

203       Tribute to Rome from Carthage included 500,000 bushels of wheat and 300,000 bushels of barley.  (Root, 1980)

c50       Varro described Roman agriculture, including cultivation of grain (wheat, spelt, & barley - but not rye or oats), legumes, olive, and grapes.  By this time Romans had well-developed systems of legume rotation (the use of legumes as a fertilizer crop to return nitrogen to the soil.)  (Gras, 1946)

c50       Columnella wrote a treatise on Roman Agriculture, covering many subjects, including the various benefits and difficulties of managing slaves versus tenants on large properties.  (Gras, 1946)

c50       Virgil, though not a botanist, gave descriptions and information concerning 164 different plants known to the Greeks in his Georgica. (HNT, 1492 edition) Advice included laying fields fallow and allowing a crop of vetch and lupine (legumes) to mature before sowing wheat.  Virgil recommends the scattering of manure as well as ashes.  (Gras, 1946)

24       Aelius Gallus, the Egyptian prefect for Augustus’ Roman Empire, led an ill-fated campaign to conquer the South Arabian spice kingdoms.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

AD

c32           The extreme value of spikenard, a fragrant emollient made from Nardostachys jatamansi, is highlighted in a Biblical episode in Mark 14:3-6.  A believer is chastised by other supporters for anointing Christ with the expensive spikenard, which could have been sold for charity.  By the time of Pliny [See c70] the increase in direct Roman trade with India [See c40] lowered the cost of spikenard to one-third of the value it held before Roman fleets began to sail with the monsoons.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

c32       Biblical account of Palm Sunday.  The date palm has long been considered the tree of life in deserts of the Old World.  With 70% sugar content the fruit serve humans and other animals.  Moreover, the date palm is associated with fertility and fecundity.

C40          The Greek merchant Hippalus is said to have realized that seasonal monsoons could be used to take sailors back and forth across the ocean from Egypt to the pepper-producing Malabar coast of India.  This led to extensive development of Roman fleets that captured the Indian spice trade from overland routes controlled by Arab traders.  An account of this trade is recorded in The Periplus..., a treatise known from about 90 A.D.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

c50       Dioscorides, the Father of Medical Botany, was author of an ancient compilation of descriptions and medicinal uses for plants, which was the most widely known western botanical text during the middle ages (HNT).  The earliest herbals were recapitulations of Dioscorides.  With an expanding awareness of the natural world in the 16th-century, herbalists began to make their own descriptions of plants, and at last Dioscorides’s influence waned.  Plants known to Dioscorides included about 650 different species.

c70           Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus, A.D. 23-79), in his Natural History, discussed about 1000 different plants.  Well known throughout the middle ages, this book constituted a major source of information on botany.  Primarily an historian and storyteller, Pliny edited uncritically, even fancifully.  Once the original, rarer source documents were discovered and printed, the errors in Pliny’s account became obvious.  (HNT) It is through Pliny that we know the exact costs of many products, and that farmers alternated crops of beans with spelt.  He comments on the growing trend of farm land consolidation to create slave-maintained plantations.  (Gras, 1946)   His comments on teaching:  “Yes indeed, those who have gained a little knowledge keep it in a grudging spirit secret to themselves, and to teach nobody else increase the prestige of their learning.” (transl. Eamon, 1994)

79             24 August - Pompeii was buried by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.  Walnuts were left at a table, uneaten by priests whose meal was terminally interrupted.  (Root, 1980)

c90           John predicted the fall of Rome (disguised as Babylon,) describing how the merchants of that city would mourn the loss of their cinnamon and frankincense.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

105           In this year, according to tradition, the first paper was made.  Paper maker, Ts’ai Lun, used the inner bark of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera).  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996) A stand of paper mulberry is quite evident along the eastern edge of the Huntington parking lot.

280       Roman Emperor Probus rescinded the edict of Domitian, which had prohibited planting grape vineyards in the provinces.  (Johnson, 1989)

290           The Peruvian tomb of a Moche warrior priest contained gold and silver jewelry shaped like peanuts.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

332       Constantine enacted a measure that bound tenants to country parcels, ensuring continued cultivation of land that might otherwise be abandoned.  (Gras, 1946)

335       Cloves were delivered to Constantine - the first record of this spice in the West.  The source, flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, had been known in China for centuries, where in the Han Court etiquette demanded that a person received by the emperor hold a clove in his mouth to sweeten the breath.  (Root, 1980)

c350       During the middle ages popular herbals of very little scientific content appeared.  They contained no observations beyond those taken from Dioscorides.  The various versions of Apuleius’ herbals were unfortunate simplifications both in text and in accuracy of plant illustrations.  The Huntington has a printed edition of Apuleius (1483), considered to be the first printed herbal.  (HNT)

 400       Haric (Alaric) the Goth demanded 3000 lbs of black pepper as part of the ransom for the city of Rome.  His assaults on the city continued, and Rome fell on 24 August 410 after the third siege. (Rosengarten, 1969)

 500       Coffee, apparently native to the mountains of Ethiopia, was known as a beverage in Arabia.  It was first thought to have been roasted in the 1450's, with drinking of brewed coffee spreading to Egypt by 1510, to Constantinople in 1550, to Venice in 1616, to England in 1650, and to Holland in 1690.  By 1600, coffee was grown in India, Ceylon, and the East Indies. Cultivation moved to the West Indies and Brasil via propagation from a single tree that was grown in Amsterdam. [See 1706]

548       Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote his Topographia Christiana, describing the importance of the harvesting and processing of black pepper (Piper nigrum.)  (Rosengarten, 1969)

593           Tea was taken to Japan, where it assumed a major role in Buddhist ritual.  (Simpson, 1989)

c600       Mohammed was partial owner of a shop in Mecca, trading in plant products such as myrrh, frankincense, and spices.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

610       Papermaking was introduced from China to Japan.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

632       Mohammed’s death.  His injunction against consumption of alcohol had immediate impact, such that within ten years drinking was already banned in Arabia and much of the new Islamic empire (Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia.)  (Johnson, 1989)

746           The Dutch and Germans began adding hops to beer.  The British would not begin using hops until after 1524.  (Simpson, 1989)

775       Charlemagne gave the upper slopes of the hill of Corton to the Abbey of Saulieu.  Wine from this zone is still called Corton-Charlemagne.  (Johnson, 1989)

812       Charlemagne ordered imperial farms in Germany to grow anise, fennel, fenugreek, and flax.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

857       Several thousand people perished in the Rhine Valley, victims of St. Anthony’s fire.  Today we know this condition to be a type of poisoning resulting from a toxic fungal infection (ergot) of rye.  The fungal pathogen discolors the grain but gives limited hints otherwise as to spoilage.  Epidemics were most serious during times of famine when people consumed grain that might otherwise have been discarded.  Outbreaks occurred from time to time until 1816.  The active ingredient is ergotamine.  One study suggests that the Salem, MA witch trials resulted from hallucinations of important community members who were exposed to contaminated rye.  (Root, 1980)

867           King Charles the Bald granted land on the Loire at Chablis to the Chapter of St. Martin at Tours for a vineyard.  Because the Loire connects to the Seine, this wine became well known in Paris.  (Johnson, 1989)

900       People in Flanders and Zeeland began systems of dikes to exclude the sea from lowland areas to create land for agriculture.  In response to rising population, the same treatment would begin in Holland some 300 years later.  (Ponting, 1991)

903           Ibn al-Faqih published Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan, which is interpreted to describe sorghum and cowpeas as food staples for Ghana.  (R. L. Hall in Viola & Margolis, 1991)

1000       Many plants, including spinach and olive, arrived in Spain with the Moors.

1150       Paper was first produced in Europe - introduced to Spain by the Moors.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

1057       Chinese Emperor Jen Tsung ordered a new national pharmacopeia be written.  More than 1000 drawings were received in Hangchow and the treatment covered over 1000 plants.

1180         A guild of pepper wholesale merchants, a pepperers’ guild, was founded in London.  Later this organization merged with a spicers’ guild.  In 1429 the spicers’ guild became The Grocers’ Company (the word “grocer” from vendre en gros, French for wholesale.)  The charter of this organization was to manage trade in spices, drugs, and dyestuffs; these guild members held exclusive right to “garble” - which meant to select and process spices and medicinal products.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

c1200       Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, was introduced to China.

1236         The Statute of Merton gave English manor lords the right to enclose parts of the common woods, waste, and pasture.  By 1485 the Tudor move toward increased enclosure further exacerbated problems with tenants, leading to Ket’s rebellion in 1549.  (Gras, 1946)

1300       Villanova detailed Poems for Health, recommending nut oils for cooking.  (Root, 1980)

1315       Through the year 1317, medieval Europe had its worst famine.  Following less than half normal crop production in 1315, people began consuming the seed supply for the next year.  Wheat prices soared.  Over 50% of livestock died, the poor starved.  By 1318 bodies in Ireland were disinterred for food.  (Ponting, 1991)

1324       William of Ockham established a philosophical viewpoint that avoids complicated explanations: “What can be accounted for by fewer assumptions is explained in vain by more.”  Called Ockham’s Razor, this approach is important in botanical investigations, whereby scientists search for the most “parsimonious” solutions to evolutionary questions.  (HNT, first publication in 1495)

1358         The Jacquerie, the first notable European peasant revolt, endured for 2 months.  Brigands had so plundered the region (destroying unprotected villages and isolated homesteads, taking loot and food and leaving in their wake death, carnage, ruined homes, destroyed stores, trampled fields, and uprooted vines) that peasant farmers failed to replant for fear of further loss.  In desperation peasant countrymen came together, at first in rebellion against deplorable conditions, eventually in retaliation.  Though this and other movements were quelled, similar revolts, all stemming from brigandry, manorialism, and feudalism, occurred throughout Europe (most notably in England in 1381 and Germany in 1525) for centuries.  These revolts would continue to expand in scope and shift in epicenter, leading to the French Revolution of 1779 and the 1918 Russian Revolution.  (Gras, 1946)

1455       Gutenburg printed the first Bible with moveable type.  Ancient botanical treatments, available previously only in hand scribed versions, could now be printed.  Publication of new herbals and simples advanced quickly. [See Theophrastus, c300 BC]

1471         The Opus Ruralium Commodorum was published, based on a manuscript written a century earlier by Peitro Creszenzi of Bologna.  Compiled from works of Varro, Columnella, and Cato, with an admixture of Creszenzi’s own thoughts, this book was translated into various languages and read extensively.  It could be considered the foundation of modern western gardening.  (Camp, Boswell, & Magness, 1957)

1480         The dry garden at the monastery of Ryoan, in Kyoto, was built during this decade, apparently reaching completion by 1490.

1487         Diaz worked his way around Africa in search of spice & trade for the Portuguese.

1492       Columbus left Spain, sailing west to search for new routes and sources for importing spices from the East. He returned with corn (Zea mays) and other crop plants.

1493       During Columbus’ second voyage he apparently introduced sugar cane to Santo Domingo; a settler named Aguilón was reported to have harvested cane juice by 1505 (Thomas, 1999).  By 1516 the first processed sugar was shipped from Santo Domingo to Spain.  Soon afterward, Portugal began importing sugar from Brasil.  (Sugar cane would become  a driving force for the slave trade.)  Columbus also carried seed of lemon, lime, and the sweet orange to Hispaniola.  He returned to Europe with pineapple.  (Viola & Margolis, 1991)

1493-94       Peter Martyr wrote that Columbus brought “pepper more pungent than that from the Caucasus.”  These capsicum peppers were introduced into Spain in 1493, known in England by 1548, and grown in Central Europe as early as 1585.

1494       Columbus introduced cucumbers and other vegetables from Europe to Haiti.

1497         In reference to citrus, Camoes, in recording his voyages to India wrote:

A thousand trees are seen towards heaven rising,

With beautiful and sweetly-scented apples;

The orange, wearing on its lovely fruit

The colour Daphne carried in her hair;

Bent low, nay almost fallen to the ground,

The citron, heavy with is yellow load;

And, last, the graceful lemon with its fruit

Of pleasant smell and shaped like virgins’ breasts.  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1497       Vasco de Gama opened Portuguese trade around the Cape of Good Hope.  On 20 May 1498 he arrived at Calicut, on the west coast of India.  Having left Lisbon on 8 July 1497, under orders from the King of Portugal, he followed the route (discovered by Diaz 11 years before) around the Cape of Good Hope.  His arrival in India marked the first voyage from Europe.  This trip and the subsequent voyage of Cabral broke the Venetian monopoly on the sugar and the spice trade.  (Rosengarten, 1969; Root, 1980)

1499         In his Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Francesco Colonna described dream-like scenes (some illustrated) of mansion, forest, and garden, that influenced writers, artists, architects, and designers well into the 17th century.  (Thacker, 1979)

c1500       Bean and lima bean, crops native to America, became known to Europeans.  By the late 1700's the lima bean was grown in Africa, Europe, India, and the Philippines.  By 1500 the sweet potato (native to South America) had been taken to Spain, where it was in cultivation at mid-century.  This root was soon cultivated in China, India, and Malaya. [See 1526; 1648]

1500         The Indian population of Brasil numbered about 2.5 million before European settlement.  That population today is less than 200,000. (Ponting, 1991)

1502         The island of St. Helena was discovered by J. de Nova, and would soon become a garden site for fresh provisions to break the several month voyage between Portugal and Mozambique.  At the end of the century, James Lancaster would take with him bottled lemon juice and “by this means the Generall cured many of his men, and preserved the rest.”  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1505       Enslaved Africans were first brought to the New World.  Trade in slaves would steadily rise, driven at first by gold mining, the harvest of natural resources, and increasing agricultural demand.  In the end, at least 9.5 million African slaves were brought to the New World, fully 2.5 million of whom were deployed in the Caribbean where they worked substantially in the sugar industry.  For 360 years slavery was the key labor source for New World sugar production. (Mintz in Viola & Margolis, 1991)  By another breakdown, approximately 13,000,000 slaves were exported from Africa between 1440 and 1870.  Of those people, about 6,000,000 were deployed initially to work in sugar plantations, 2,000,000 to coffee, 1,000,000 to mining, 1,000,000 for domestic labor, 500,000 for cotton fields, 250,000 for cacao walks, and 250,000 for construction.  (Thomas, 1999)

1505         The Portuguese settled Ceylon.  Their exploitation of the cinnamon forests led to a system of slavery and a monopoly on trade in this spice.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1506         A Suzhou author described Chinese potted landscapes (pinjing, or pan jing) in the following manner: “The people of Tiger Hill are excellent at planting strange flowers and rare blossoms in a dish.  A dish with pine or antique flowering plum, when placed on a table, is pure, elegant and delightful.”  (Clunas, 1996)

1511       Western explorers discovered that the Molucca Islands (the Spice Islands) were the source of cloves.  See Root (1980) for detail of intrigue that followed.  Eventually [see 1773] one tree planted by Pierre Poivre parented orchards in Madagascar and Zanzibar.  These countries nearly provide the world supply today.

1511       Having won battles over Muslim forces, the Portuguese advanced their control over spice producing areas of India, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra - and by 1514, the Spice Islands.  For nearly 100 years great Portuguese wealth would flow from control of the spice trade. [See 1605] (Rosengarten, 1969)

1514       Alvarez was the first European to reach China by sea.  In the region of Canton the Portuguese encountered oranges superior in sweetness and fragrance even to those brought from India and Ceylon.  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1516         The banana was introduced to the New World from Africa.  (Heiser, 1981)[See 1804]

1518       Duarte Barbosa, in An Account of the Countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants describes sweet oranges in Ceylon.  A later book by Garcia da Orta, 1562, one of the earliest European books printed in India, commented that the oranges of Ceylon “are the best of the whole world in regard to sweetness and abundance of juice.”  Prior to the discovery that China harbored sweet oranges, Europeans were less accustomed to consuming the fruit and considered citrus more valuable for its fragrance.  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1519       Magellan began his circumnavigation of South America, exploring trade routes.  Nearly 3 years later, on 8 September 1522, 18 of the original 250 crewmen (lacking Magellan, who died on the isle of Mactan in April, 1521) returned to Seville, with 1 of the 5 ships that started (only the Victoria made the entire voyage).  Even given such great losses, the cloves (26 tons), sacks of nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, and load of sandalwood returned to Spain from the very last legs of the voyage covered the entire expedition cost.  The returning captain, Sebastian del Cana, was given a pension and awarded a coat of arms that displays two cinnamon sticks, three nutmegs, and 12 cloves.  A journal detailing exploits of this voyage was maintained by Antonio Pigafetta, gentleman-adventurer, and published subsequently as Primo Viaggio Intorno al Mondo.  (Rosengarten, 1969; Boorstin, 1983)

1521       Hernando Cortés conquered Mexico.  While on reconnaissance in southeastern Mexico, his soldiers were the first Europeans to discover the delights of the Aztecan spice, vanilla.  (Rosengarten, 1969) Among the people in Cortés’ party was a free, black African, Juan Garrido.  At his farm in Coyoacán, Garrido later would become the first European to plant wheat in Mexico. (Thomas, 1999)

1522       Pigaphetta, following three years of voyage to the Moluccas, wrote that “in all the islands of the Moluccas there are to be found cloves, ginger, sago which is wood-bread, rice, ...pomegranates, both sweet and sour oranges, lemons...”  He also wrote that: “the betel-nut is a fruit which they keep chewing together with flowers of jasmine and orange,” and “ the cannibals of the islands...eat no other part of the human body but the heart, uncooked but seasoned with the juice of oranges and lemons.”  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1524       Representatives of Spain and Portugal met to review maps and charts in an attempt to agree over ownership of the Spice Islands (first controlled by Portuguese in 1511); five years later Portugal paid 350,000 gold ducats to Spain for relinquishment of claims.  (Milton, 1999)

1525       Rycharde Banckes published his English Herbal with the introductory phrase: “Here begynneth a newe mater, the whiche sheweth and treateth of ye vertues and proprytes of herbes, the which is called an Herball” (Sanecki, 1992)

1526       Peter Treveris published The Grete Herbal, an English translation of a popular French herbal.  The book appears to be the first illustrated herbal published in English.  (Sanecki, 1992)

1526       Oviedo reported having often transported sweet potatoes (batatas) from the Caribbean to Castile.  During this century, Portuguese traders carried the crop to all of their shipping ports, and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java.  To this day, confusion exists between the sweet potato (batata, or camote in Spanish) and the yam.  This began as early as the first encounter by Colombus, who introduced the crop to the Spanish court as similar to the true yam, a plant native to West Africa and already familiar to Europeans.  A member of the morning glory family, sweet potato appears to have its origins in the Chilean/Peruvian Andes.  (Sauer, 1993) 

1530       Brunfels published Herbarium Vivae Eicones, the first newly written and printed botanical book/herbal.

1531         A decree issued in Castile under the Spanish Crown allowed good terms for loans to allow purchase of slaves by settlers for establishment of sugar mills. (Thomas, 1999)

1532       Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru.

1533         A professorship in botany, created at the university in Padua, established plant study as a discipline separate from medicine.  That position was filled by Francesco Bonafede.  The following year Luca Ghini became a lecturer in botany at Bologna. (Morton, 1971) [See 1543; 1545]

1533       Authorship by Wen Zhengming of an album including a lengthy written Record as well as numerous paintings and poems documenting the Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician in China’s garden city of Suzhou codified the significant history of one of the world’s most famous built landscapes.  His concluding descriptive statement gave a panoramic view of the site: “In all there is one hall, one tower, six pavilions and twenty-three studios, balustrades, ponds, terraces, banks and torrents, making a total of thirty-one, by name the Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician.”  (Clunas, 1996)

1536       Spaniards completed the conquest of Peru and soon began to use potatoes as cheap food for sailors.  The earliest English publication describing potatoes was Gerard’s 1597 herbal.   By 1700 potatoes were important in Germany, and by 1800, important in Russia.

1538         The word “carnation” first appeared as a royal reminder of this plant’s ancient Greek name Diosanthos, which translates as “the flowers of Zeus.”  The scientific name for these plants with clove-scented flowers, Dianthus caryophyllus, yields yet more etymological charm, since the term for clove spice comes to us from the Arabic (quaranful) to the Greek (karyophillon) to the Latin (caryophyllus).  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1541       Jacques Cartier introduced cabbage to Canada on his third voyage.  The first written record of cabbage in the US is 1669.

1541         A book to promote cooking with sugar was available in Venice.  Later Nostradamus wrote the first French book on this topic.  (Root, 1980)

1542       Fuchs published De Historia Stirpium Commentarii.  By 1543 he had published the German version,  New Kreüterbuch.  Illustrations for his herbals were based on studies of living plants, rather than on the simplified images that had become common in various scribed editions of the Apuleius herbal. [See c. 350]  The text, however, was taken essentially from Dioscorides.  (HNT) Much later, the plant genus Fuchsia was named in his honor.

1543         One of the first botanical gardens, a garden of “simples,” was established by Luca Ghini at the University in Pisa - on a site different from that of the present garden.

1545         The botanical garden was established at Padua, Italy.

1550       Introduced to China by 1550, corn grew so quickly in importance that this crop became a significant factor in the 18th century increase in the Chinese population, particularly in inland areas where rice was not prolific. (By the end of the 20^th century, China was the world’s second largest producer of corn.)

1550         By this year, tomatoes (introduced from the New World) were regularly consumed in Italy. [See 1554] (Morton, 1981)

1550       Damiao de Goes described orange exports from Portugal to Spain.  The date follows very quickly after the tradition that J. de Castro, on returning from India, brought the sweet orange and planted it at his country home of Penh Verde.  From this tree, all of the Portugal type sweet oranges were descendent.  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1551       Jerome Bock published his Kreüterbuch, one of the first herbals to include the author’s own plant descriptions from first-hand observations - rather than copying the work of Dioscorides. (HNT)

1554         First written record of the tomato.  Italians grew the plant by about 1550.  Thomas Jefferson was the first American to grow tomatoes, in 1781.  Tomatoes were eaten in New Orleans by 1812.  George W. Carver dedicated himself to promoting the tomato, in addition to his work on peanuts.

1554       Though the first description in Europe of kohlrabi was in this year, it was not grown commercially (that was accomplished in Ireland) until 1734.  Records of this vegetable in the US date from 1806.

1556       Tobacco cultivation began in Europe with an importation of seed by André Thevet.  (Simpson, 1989) Introduction to Europe is reported as 1559 by De Wolf.  (Punch, 1992)

1558         An illustration published by Thevet documented the harvesting and processing of cashew by natives in Brasil. (Other contemporary writers also had discussed the value of this native American tree.)  Within a decade, Portuguese traders had introduced the cashew to India, where it remains an important crop.  Its value lies not simply in the cashew nut, but also in the juicy peduncle (the stem, called marañon in Latin America) on which the nut-bearing fruit forms.  That peduncle, resembling a quince or apple, provides astringent, watery refreshment.  Moreover, once fermented it yields cashew wine and brandy.  North Americans, very aware of the asymmetric roasted cashew seed that competes with peanuts for dominance in cans of mixed nuts, are often unfamiliar with the fruit-like peduncle. (Sauer, 1993)  Never make the mistake of eating raw cashew nuts taken from a fresh marañon.  The shell (the real fruit) surrounding the seed is invested with toxic compounds that are dispelled with roasting.  The cashew tree is related to the mango (Mangifera indica), which is native to the hills of Assam.  Many people are allergic to the foliage of the mango, though they may not be affected by the fruit.

1559         In this year Conrad Gesner recorded the earliest known instance of a tulip flowering in cultivation in Europe, in the garden of Johann Heinrich Herwart in Augsburg.  (Pavord, 1999) Gesner is said to have received these bulbs from Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, ambassador from Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I to the Ottoman court of Suleiman the Magnificent. Busbecq reported these highly colored flowers were called tulipam by their Turkish admirers, but since the native word for these plants is lalé, supposition comes into play that Busbecq was told the flowers (or even the bulbs) resemble the dulban (the turban).  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1560       Three olive saplings were planted in Lima, Peru by the Spaniards, one of which was later taken to Chile.  These three trees formed the basis of today’s South American olive industry.  (Root, 1980)

1561         The posthumously published work of Valerius Cordus established wholly new standards for systematic plant description.  His was the first work to uniformly address all aspects of a plant, in standard sequence and parallel treatment.  (Morton, 1981)

1564         The European grape vine was imported to California via Mexico, brought by priests.

1565       According to popular history, John Hawkins introduced the potato to Ireland.

1568         The New Herball of William Turner was published in completed forM (in Cologne), including all three parts.  Part 1 had been published in 1551 (in Antwerp), part 2 in Cologne in 1561.  (Sanecki, 1992) 

1569       Joyful News... published by Monardes from Seville between 1569 and 1574, later published by John Frampton in English, 1577, as Joyfull News out of the Newfounde Worlde.  Many new plants are discussed in this book, including tobacco and sunflower (the first mention).  By 1596 John Gerard was growing sunflowers in his garden.  By 1665 John Ray commented that the flower’s popularity had subsided.  This seems also to be the first mention in Europe of the American native tree sassafras [See 1586].

1573         The peanut is known to have been cultivated in Chekiang Province, China, probably arriving with the Portuguese from stops sailors made in Brasil en route to the Orient.

1573       Clusius became court gardener to Maximilian II in Vienna, remaining in that position until 1587.  He later became a professor at the University of Leiden in Holland, where he introduced and popularized the tulip.

1581         In a series of letters sent from Portugal (1581-1583) Phillip II of Spain wrote to his two daughters about the love of plants and gardening: “The other day I was given what is contained in this box, being told that it was a sweet lime; and, although I do not believe that it is anything else than a lemon, I longed to send it to you because, should it be a sweet lime then I never saw one so big...I also send you roses and some orange blossoms, that you may see there are some here.”  It is likely that the Phillip’s sweet lime was what we today would call an orange, for the Portuguese called the Indian sweet orange the limon doce. (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1583         De Plantis libri by Andrea Cesalpino became the greatest botanical book of the 16th century and the first general text to supersede ancient writings.  In the preceding 2000 years, little had been added to our knowledge about plants.  Like his predecessors, Cesalpino accepted anecdotal information, but he advanced plant study with his own contributions in many areas, particularly in his grouping of plants by their physical characteristics (morphology) rather than by their supposed medicinal properties.  (HNT) Cesalpino was a student of Luca Ghini [See 1533; 1543.] The bean genus Caesalpinia was named for him.

1583       Clusius is said to have taken the yellow-flowered Rosa foetida to Holland from Vienna, where it became known as the Austrian Briar (the orange-red cultivar ‘Bicolor’ is still known as Austrian Copper.) (Grimshaw, 1998) [See 1900]

1586       Francis Drake, on landing at Roanoke, Virginia, heard tales of colonists who had survived on soup made from sassafras.  He returned to England with what may have been the first shipment of this plant.  As early as 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold (who named Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard) had shipped material of the plant to England.  By 1607 Sassafras was in great demand, sold in English coffeehouses and even on the street.  The tea was said to cure a wide range of diseases; the wood, thought to repel insect attack.  Today we know that oil of sassafras (out of use since the early 1960s) is substantially the chemical safrole, once used to flavor root beer, but now considered carcinogenic.  The most significant commercial use for sassafras today is the manufacture of filé, which is a powder made from young, dried leaves.  (Rupp, 1990)

1587         First written description of Brussels sprouts, a form of cabbage.  Common in Belgium, this vegetable crop was known in the US by 1800.

1593       Carolus Clusius, having relocated to Leiden, established the Hortus Academicus, said to be the first botanical garden dedicated to ornamental plants.  The valuable collection of tulips cultivated there by Clusius, apparently through theft as much as sale or gift, provided much of the material for the growing Dutch tulip industry.  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1594       Through 1597 a great famine struck Europe, caused by four bad harvests.  (Ponting, 1991)

1595       Bakers in Montpellier, France were forced to use bushes to fire their ovens because there remained no forest in the area to supply firewood.  Europe would continue to face energy shortages based on dwindling forest reserves.  Eventually reliance would move to coal, then to petroleum (remember, even these fossil fuels are based on plant life), which would mark a  major shift in the history of civilization, from renewable to non-renewable energy sources.  (Ponting, 1991)

1596         L. Shih Chen published Pen Ts’ao Kang Mu, the most well-known and praised of Chinese herbals.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1597       Gerard published the first edition of his Herball, followed eventually by a second edition in 1633, which was edited and expanded by Thomas Johnston.  Titled  The Herball or General Historie of Plants, the text is said to have relied heavily on an English translation of Dodoens’ Stirpium.  (Sanecki, 1992)

1600       Britain’s East India Company was founded.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1601         Jean Robin published a catalog for his medicinal herb garden.

1602       Shareholders formed The United (Dutch) East India Company, with bad consequences for Portuguese traders. [See 1605, 1799] (Rosengarten, 1969)

1603       Spigelius published instructions on making dried herbarium specimens (in his Isagoges in Rem Herbarium) - a technique that had only come into practice during the previous 50 years.  The collecting, exchange, archiving, and study of pressed, dried plants that are mounted to sheets of paper engendered a quiet revolution in taxonomy, floristics, and systematics.  (Morton, 1981)

1605        James I issued letters of incorporation to London’s Worshipful Company of Gardeners.

1605         The Dutch began seizing control of Portuguese-held trade with the Spice Islands (historically called the Moluccas, today the three widespread groups of islands that make up the Indonesian province of Maluku), gaining full control by 1621.  By 1681 a plan to eliminate trees in most areas of the Moluccas and to concentrate cultivation of nutmeg and cloves on only two islands had the desirable effect of raising prices and tightening management of supply.  (Rosengarten, 1969)[See 1770; 1860; 1886]

1606         A million black mulberry trees were imported to England, another step in an effort to start a silk industry.  Production of silk in England was never successful.  (Lewington, 1990)

1608         Jean Robin and Pierre Valet published the first European florilegium, Jardin du Roy tres Chrestien Henri IV.   It was followed closely by Florilegium Novum (1611-1614) and Florilegium Renovatum (1641) by Jean Theodore de Bry, Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis (1613), Emanuel Sweert’s Florilegium (1612), and Hortus Floridus by Crispin de Passe (1614).  These books covered extensive numbers of horticultural floral forms.  For example, Besler’s work included 660 species and more than 400 variants (doubles, variegates, etc); 400 of his plants had medicinal value, 180 were used in cooking, and 250 were grown principally for ornament.  Besler’s book included numerous forms of  lilies, campanulas, delphiniums, hollyhocks, scabiosas, iris, tulips, narcissus, roses, hyacinths, and anemones.

1609       Jamestown colonists planted cucumbers and carrots in their gardens.

1610         The practice of drinking tea was first introduced to Europe, and to England in 1644.

1610         By this year, huge sugar plantations in the province of Bahia, Brasil were run by 2,000 white settlers, 4,000 black slaves, and 7,000 Indian slaves.

1610         Tea was imported to Europe (apparently the first time) through the Dutch East India Company.  It was not until September 1658 that an advertisement appeared in England for this commodity. (Coe & Coe, 1996)

1611         John Tradescant, gardener at Hatfield House, submitted a bill for various plants purchased in Holland, including 80 shillings paid for 800 tulip bulbs.  At that price, the bulbs represented a gardener’s salary for about six months.  (Pavord, 1999)

1612         The 225 square mile, 13 foot deep Lake Beemster in Holland was drained to create 17,000 acres of fertile land.  The draining required 43 windmills. In the hundred years from 1550 to 1650, nearly 400,000 acres of Dutch land were reclaimed for agriculture.  (Ponting, 1991)

1612         John Rolfe is said to have introduced the Orinoco strain of tobacco from Venezuela, giving Virginia colonists their first commercially successful agricultural export crop. (The tobacco native to Virginia was not popular in Europe).  The value of tobacco was so great that Virginia governor Thomas Dale was forced to require that each farmer plant 2 acres of corn also.  About 500,000 pounds of tobacco were produced in 1627; and 35 million pounds by 1700.  The eventual demands of tobacco as a crop resulted in institution of slave labor in about 1674.  (Schlebecker, 1975)

1619         The Virginia Company of London (having been founded through a land grant in Virginia in 1606) instituted the headright system, a means of granting land (in 50 acre parcels) to farmers.  The original working arrangement had been a seven-year indenture period for settlers, with the expectation farmers would continue as share-cropping tenants.  The headright system of land disposal established a precedent for other colonies in eastern North America.  (Schlebecker, 1975) 

1620       Although some advances in the study of natural phenomena had been made in the previous century, Francis Bacon’s call for method in scientific inquiry in his Novum organum (HNT) prompted a new spirit of investigation.  His method rejected “the dogma and deduction” of ancient philosophers who ignored the value of observation. 

1621         A thanksgiving feast was held in mid-October by Plymouth Colony Pilgrims in appreciation of assistance from members of the Massasoit tribe and celebration of the first harvest.  (Milestones, Pen, 1974)

1622       Native Americans killed a third of the Virginia population of European settlers in apparent retaliation for the encroachment of these immigrants on Indian cornfields.  (Root, 1980)

1623       Gaspard Bauhin produced the Pinax, a monumental compilation that pulled together uncoordinated plant names and descriptions that had appeared in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, as well as in later herbals and other plant records.  By accepting Bauhin’s compilation, Linnaeus was able to avoid many of the complications of the ancient literature.  (HNT)

1623       Carrying through with the barbarous cruelty of Dutch Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen in establishing control over spice producing islands, Dutch representatives committed a brutal massacre of the British and Japanese working on Amboyna.  (Milton, 1999)

1625       Francis Bacon published his essay ‘Of Gardens,’ in which he imagined an ideal garden, a princely 30-acre Eden.

1629         John Parkinson published Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris.

1634         Until 1637 the zeal of collectors inflated values of tulip cultivars. This Tulipomania eventually fell victim to a market collapse that affected the entire Dutch economy.

1635         The Jardin des Plantes was established in Paris by royal edict.

1636         The Portuguese were expelled from Deshima, their Japanese trade island; the Dutch were allowed on-going contact with Japanese traders, through Hirado and eventually Deshima in 1641.

1636         The Dutch occupied Ceylon, forcing villagers to supply quotas of cinnamon, as had the Portuguese previously.  (Rosengarten, 1969)

1637       Tradescant f. (the son, filius, of elder Tradescant) made his first trip to Virginia, returning to England with living material of bald cypress and American sycamore. Tradescant f. made his second trip to Virginia in 1642.

1637         John Tradescant introduced Mimosa pudica, the South American sensitive plant, to cultivation in England.  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1640         John Parkinson published his Theatrum Botanicum in which plants are classified according to 17 classes or tribes; i.e. 1. Sweet smelling Plants; 2. Purging Plants; 3. Venemous Sleepy and Hurtfull plants and their Counter Poysons; 4. Saxifrages; 5. Vulnerary or Wound Herbs; 6. Cooling and Succory Herbs; 7. Hot and Sharpe Biting Plants; 8. Umbelliferous Plants; 9. Thistles and Thorny Plants; 10. Fearnes and Capillary Herbes; 11. Pulses; 12. Cornes; 13. Grasses; 14. Marsh Water and Sea Plants and Mosses and Mushroomes; 15. The Unordered Tribe; 16. Trees and Shrubbes; 17. Strange and Outlandish Plants.  (Sanecki, 1992)

1642       Samedo Alvaro recounted stories to Europeans about the Chinese healing root called jin-chen, or ginseng.  (Emboden, 1974)

1646         J. B. Ferrarius published his 500 page compendium of all known information on citriculture, Hesperides, sive De Malorum aureorum Cultura et Usus Libri Quator (Hesperides, or Four Books on the Culture and Use of the Golden Apples).  He relates a fable of citrus in which the three daughters of Hesperus, the Hesperides, fled to Italy from Africa.  Aegle took her citrons to the country near Lake Garda, Arethusa bore her lemons to Liguria, and Hesperthusa sowed seed of oranges in the Campania Felix.  Among his many woodcut illustrations is figured the navel orange, a form we tend to think of as modern.  (Tolkowsky, 1938)

1647         Rice was introduced into cultivation in the Carolinas.  Today California, Arkansas, Louisiana, & Texas are the main rice producing states. (Heiser, 1981)

1647       Correspondence from the Caribbean to Gov. Winthrop of Massachusetts confirmed that workers at sugar plantations would require food provisions from the outside, because the production of sugar was more profitable than the production of other provisions.  The most important export for Massachusetts was salt cod sold to feed slaves in West Indian plantations.  Returning ships brought quantities of sugar and molasses sufficient to spur the New England rum industry.  (Root, 1980)

1648       Sweet potatoes were in cultivation in Virginia.

1648         Jean Baptiste van Helmont reported one of the earliest and most spectacular experiments in plant physiology and nutrition.  A five pound willow tree was planted in 200 pounds of dry soil.  It was watered and allowed to grow for five years.  At the end of this period, the total gain in weight was one hundred and sixty-nine pounds and three ounces, while the soil had lost only two ounces.  Van Helmont guessed that water is a complex substance which is changed into plant material.

1649       Nicholas Culpeper published his herball, The English Physician or an Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation Being a Compleat Method of Physic Whereby a man may preserve his body in health or cure himself being sick for thee pence charge with such things onely as grow in England, they being most fit for English Bodies.  The English Physician dealt considerably with astrology and the signatures of plants.  (Sanecki, 1992)

1650         By this year coffee had arrived in England.  By 1675 there would be over 3,000 coffee houses in that country.  (Simpson, 1989)

1650       From this time until the 20th Century the Caribbean was the world center for growing sugar cane.

1651       Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae... (HNT) was published, 80 years late.  This work resulted from one of the earliest explorations of the natural history of the New World, made in 1570 by Francisco Hernández, private physician to Philip II of Spain.  He was sent to assess natural resources and reported on more than 1000 plants that were considered medicinally important by the natives of Mexico.   Some of the plants he described and preserved as botanical specimens are now extinct.

1651       Britain’s Navigation Act required that all imports from the colonies be received on British ships.

1652         The first New England pine trees were felled for British ship masts.  Before the end of the century, British warships were built in North America.  By 1775 easy sources of wood for masts had been stripped from Eastern North America.  (Ponting, 1991) The pine tree was used as one of the symbols on the first American-made coins, issued in Boston. [See 1652; 1761]

1652         John Hull of Boston, Massachusetts was selected to establish a New England mint.  His first coins bore inscription only, but his second set was ornamented with a willow, his third with an oak, and his fourth (the largest issue) with a pine.  These Boston shillings are sometimes called the tree coins.  John Hull grew wealthy through this process and became the subject of an apocryphal tale, which claims that the marriage of his daughter to Mr. Samuel Sewell was settled with a dowry of 30,000 shillings, the amount determined as equivalent to her weight.  (Connor, 1994)

1652       Capetown was founded.  The Dutch sent two ships to Table Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa to establish a garden to provide fresh foods and fruits for sailors on their voyages by the Cape of Good Hope.  By 1679 the garden included ornamental plants from upcountry regions of Africa, as well as edible and decorative plants from China, Java, Zanzibar, etc.  By 1700 plants native to Table Bay had become common in Holland.  Among those plants were the calla (Zantedeschia aethiopica), bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae, named in honor of Queen Charlotte Sophia, wife of George III), and impatiens (Impatiens holsti). [See 1772]

1654       Tradescant f. made his third trip to Virginia.  On earlier voyages he had introduced tulip poplar and red maple to England.

1658       Oliver Cromwell died of malaria, refusing to take the only known treatment (quinine from cinchona), because it was introduced by Jesuits.  As a result, Amsterdam “was lighted up as for a great deliverance and children ran along the canals, shouting for joy that the Devil was dead.”  (Durant) [See 1820]  By 1681 cinchona was universally accepted as antimalarial.  (Simpson, 1989)

1661       Robert Boyle carefully experimented with increase in plant biomass (as had van Helmont).  In an effort to determine what had happened to the water taken up by plants, he actually boiled the liquid away from the plant tissue and found a coal-like residue. (The sceptical chymiste..., HNT)

1662       Notes from lectures by Joachim Jung appear as De Plantis Doxoscopiae Physicae Minores and Isagoge Phytoscopica (which was not formally published until 1679).  These publications express an increasingly modern approach to the study of plant morphology, including a strikingly contemporary definition of plant: “A plant is a living, non-sentient body, attached to a particular place or habitat, where it is able to feed, to grow in size, and finally to propagate itself.”   Jung’s thoughts appear to have had great influence in later works, such as those of Ray, and eventually the publications of Linnaeus.  (Morton, 1981)

1663       William Penn wrote in a letter dated 16 August, from Philadelphia, that all native American plantations included peaches of good quality.  (Root, 1980)  In his 1682 Carolina, or aDescription of the Present State of that Country, Thomas Ashe stated “the Peach Tree in incredible numbers grows wild.”  (De Wolf in Punch 1992)  This demonstrates how quickly a valuable plant (such as the peach, which is native to Persia) can be distributed and accepted.

1665         In his, Micrographia, Robert Hooke detailed the structure of cork and described “cells” for the first time, as studied using that new instrument, the microscope.

1667         The Treaty of Breda provided for cessation of hostilities between Holland and England, with each country retaining all foreign properties controlled at the time, regardless as to how recently or shamelessly those lands were conquered.  England retained control over New Holland, i.e. New York; a primary gain for Holland was final recognition of their control over Run, the one island in the spice-yielding Banda archipelago with English credentials dating back to 1603.  (Milton, 1999)   As part of this bargain, the Dutch gained control of sugar plantations in Surinam.  (Tannahill, 1988)

1669       Robert Morison was named Professor of Botany at Magdalen College, apparently the earliest recognition of botany as an academic discipline in England.

1671       Nehemiah Grew published The Anatomy of Plants Begun and Marcello Malpighi published Anatome Plantarum Idea.   These independent studies are the first important descriptions and statements on the subject of plant internal structure (Anatomy).  Both researchers continued to work in this field for several more years, resulting in new editions by Malpighi and, in 1682, Grew’s Anatomy of Plants.  The studies of Malpighi and Grew proved of such quality that little was added for over 100 years.  These men explained the structure of buds, the organization of wood, the character of flowers and their separate parts, the generation of seed and embryo, and many other topics that had never been explored before.  (HNT) (Morton, 1981) [See 1682]

1672       Robert Morison published the first scientific study of a single plant group (the carrot family) [the first monograph.] (HNT)

1673       Property for what would become the Chelsea Physic Garden was leased by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London.  When Hans Sloane purchased the Manor of Chelsea in 1712, he became owner of the property.  By 1722 Sloane was involved in the activities of the physic garden, and in the appointment of Philip Miller as the garden supervisor.  (Sanecki, 1992)

c1675       Slave traders brought cowpeas to Jamaica.  A native of India, this pea has many varieties important in the southeastern US, particularly the black-eye and the crowders.

1676       Jimsonweed gained its common name (originally Jamestown weed) when British soldiers in Virginia mistook Datura for an edible plant and “turn’d fool” with hallucinations that endured for eleven days.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996)

1676       Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a resident of Delft, reported to the Royal Society in London that through the use of his microscope he had discovered multitudinous tiny animals in pepper-water.  Leeuwenhoek had been examining a range of materials.  In examining black pepper, he had hoped to “discover the cause of the pungency of pepper upon our tongue.”  Black pepper was an imported spice of considerable economic importance.  Leeuwenhoek believed microscopic examination of pepper might demonstrate a physical cause, such as corpuscles, that would cause the sharp taste.  (Jardine, 1999)

1678         John Bannister arrived in Virginia as a minister, but more effectively as collector and naturalist for Lord Bishop of London, Rev. Henry Compton.  He began to send plant material to England, including Magnolia virginiana and Rhododendron viscosum.  (Compton died while collecting in 1692).

1679       Leeuwenhoek published a scientific letter estimating the carrying capacity of Earth to be 13.385 billion people.  His figure was based on total land area as compared to the number of people (120) supported per square kilometer in Holland.  (Cohen, 1995)

1680         By this time, the year of his death, Wang Shimin had written in his autobiography concerning his ruinous love of gardens: “Having been amply provided for by my forefathers, I am ignorant of anything to do with a livelihood: I do not even know how to use a scale or handle an abacus.  Yet I was fatally addicted to gardens.  Wherever I lived I set up rock arrangements and planted trees so as to express my sentiments and amuse my eyes.  During the prime of my life I was bent on constructing and planting in heroic proportions.  Once I gave in to my extravagant fancy I no longer thought about the consequences.”  (Clunas, 1996)

1682         In his new edition of Anatomy of Plants, Nehemiah Grew reported a conversation between himself and Thomas Millington at a meeting of the Royal Society in which both men agreed that flower pollen represents the male element.  (Morton, 1981)

1685         Guy de Tachard and colleagues, on a missionary voyage to China, were outfitted by the French Académie to collect climatic data, make astronomical observations, determine latitude and longitude, and issue reports on natural history and native science.  In their voyage, the group was well-received by Simon van der Stel, the Dutch Commissioner of the Cape of Good Hope.  Van der Stel made provisions for the group to set up a temporary observatory with the objective of recalculating the longitude of the Cape, and Tachard was allocated a pavillion, “a great Pile of Building” at the entrance to the botanical garden. (Jardine, 1999) [See 1652]

1686         John Ray, in his Historia plantarum (published in volumes through 1704) arrived at an early natural grouping of plants through looking at their many different characteristics.  His study dealt with plants worldwide, establishing standards and giving currency to much of our modern botanical terminology and summarizing the current state of botanical knowledge.  Ray, unaware of the work by Rudolf J. Camerer, concluded in his discussion on fertility in date palm, willow, and other plants that: “in our opinion the pollen is equivalent to the sperm of animals.”   His definition of species was quite modern: “each produces only its own kind; one must distinguish between essential, accidental, and environmental characters.”  Ray’s summary of plant physiology was so thorough that he could be considered the founder of that field. (HNT) (Isely, 1994; Morton, 1981)

1690         John Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding was first published, giving renewed philosophical basis to scientific investigation.  Asserting that knowledge would be improved by experience, Locke encapsulated the working bias of descriptive botany when he wrote “the way to improve our knowledge...is to get and fix in our minds, clear, distinct, and complete ideas, as far as they are to be had, and annex to them proper and constant names.”  Locke also presaged evolutionary groupings of plants in his suggestion that one class of relations between species of things might depend on “the circumstances of their origin or beginnng, and not afterwards to be altered.”  (Morton, 1981)

1693         The first record of the grapefruit in the West Indies was made by Hans Sloane in a catalog of Jamaican plants.  It is assumed the grapefruit originated there from chance hybrids between other cultivated citrus.  This plant was not introduced to Florida until nearly 1850.

1693       Famine struck northern Europe.  By 1694 fully 10% of the population of northern France had perished as a result.

1694       Rudolf Jacob Camerer (in Latin, Joachim Camerarius) wrote a scientific letter (later published by Valentini in his Polychresta exotica, 1700, HNT) that made the first clear case (with solid experimental evidence) for the nature of sex in plants and the actual role of pollen and ovule in this process. The publication documented years of work with plants such as the dioecious Morus (mulberry), Mercurialis, and Spinacia (spinach), as well as Ricinus (castor bean) and Zea (corn), which are both monoecious.  In all cases, removal of staminate plants or flowers either greatly reduced or completely eliminated fertility.  In his experiments with Cannabis (hemp), removal of staminate plants from a field did not completely deter production of fertile seed, a result “at which I must admit I was quite upset” Camerer reported. (Morton, 1981) [See 1718]

1697       Father Francisco Cupani published the first scientific description of Lathyrus odoratus,  a plant from Sicily and the parent stock of today’s sweet pea. Seed that he sent in 1699 to Robert Uvedale, headmaster of Enfield Grammar School near London, resulted in cultivated forms, and by 1731, a famous selection called ‘Painted Lady’, the exact origins of which are not known.  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1704         M. Sarrasin transported roots of American ginseng to Paris.  A paper he presented on this topic was published in the Memoirs of the French Academy in 1714, the same year in which a missionary to China, Father Jartoux, published an article on Asian ginseng in a London journal.  (Emboden, 1974)

1706       Coffee trees were sent to the botanical garden in Amsterdam from Sri Lanka (where the Dutch had only recently managed to establish plantations, breaking an ancient Arab monopoly).  A single tree survived, which was the parent of a tree at the conservatory in Paris.  In 1723, de Cliey carried a single offspring from the Paris tree to Martinique, which yielded thousands of trees there by 1777.  The Martinique plantations became the source of the first plants to be taken to the various coffee-growing regions of South America.  (Simpson, 1989)

1709       Famine struck Europe, affecting Prussia on a great scale.  (Ponting,1991)

1709       Anthony Ashley Cooper, in The Moralists, expressed the growing appreciation of the natural landscape, as contrasted with formal order in a garden.  His character, Philocles, converts to a love of the “primitive state,” of “the horrid Graces of the Wilderness,” and “the Genius of the Place.”  (Thacker, 1979)

1712       Engelbert Kaempfer published Amoenitates Exoticae, the first western description of the Japanese flora (as well as other information).  Kaempfer was a physician with the Dutch East India Company at Deshima from 1690 to 1692.  Other Kaempfer notes, published by Hans Sloane as History of Japan, include the first western description of ginkgo. 

1712       Mark Catesby made his first trip to Virginia.

1712       Captain Frezier introduced the Chilean strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, to France.  It arrived in Britain a few years later.  This plant, along with the North American species taken to France by Jean Robin in 1624, is in the ancestry of today’s commercial strawberries.

1716         The first certain account of plant hybridization was provided in a letter written by Cotton Mather, discussing the “infection” of Indian corn planted alongside yellow corn.  The following year a British hybrid dianthus was described.  In 1721 a hybrid cabbage was reported.  By 1750 the controversy of sex in plants was in the news.  By 1760 plant hybridization was a professional occupation.  The study, hybridization, and selection of corn continued.  By 1969 scientists understood more about corn genetics than the genetics of any other flowering plant. (Zirkle in Ewan, 1969) [See 1761]

1718       Sébastian Vaillant was one of the earliest supporters of Camerarius’s ideas concerning the sexual nature of plants.  He contributed to the development of terminology  necessary to discuss flower structure and function (some of which shocked his contemporaries, such as his comparing stamens to animal testicles and penis).  Originally Vaillant delivered his information in a talk at the Jardin du Roi in Paris.  By 1718 he had published the remarks as Discours sur la structure des fleurs... (HNT) (Morton, 1981)  [See 1694]

1718         The initial shipment of American ginseng (sent from Canada) arrived in China (Canton).  In 1773 shipment began from Boston, with a load of 55 tons on the Hingham.  That shipment is said to have earned nearly three dollars a pound, which would have made for substantially profitable cargo.  The potential of monetary gain created a strong supply network of North American “seng diggers.”  Philadelphia records from 1788 indicate that Daniel Boone sold 15 tons of ginseng root to merchants there.  Given such levels of harvesting, the American ginseng (Panax quinqefolium) became rare in nature.  By 1885 George Stanton had founded his 150-acre Ginseng Farm in New York.  (Emboden, 1974)

1722       Mark Catesby made a trip to South Carolina.

1722       Philip Miller began management of the Chelsea Physic Garden.

1727       Stephen Hales’ work in his Vegetable Staticks represented the first significant publication in plant physiology.  He explained some aspects of water uptake by roots, movement of liquid through plants, and evaporation of water from leaves.  His work advanced the prospect that air provides food for plants (that plants are “probably drawing through their leaves some part of their nourishment from the air”, and even suggested that light might be involved.   Hales was one of the first to use the equipment and methods of the physical sciences to study plants.  (Morton, 1981) (HNT)

1729       China banned opium.  That ban on importation would be seriously compromised by the British East India Company until 1839.

c1730       By this time Ginkgo biloba was in cultivation in the botanical garden at Utrecht. [See Kaempfer, 1712]

1732         By 1732 the black slave population of South Carolina numbered about 32,000 as compared to approximately 14,000 whites.  Slavery at this time in South Carolina was driven by rice cultivation.  Rice seed imported from Madagascar was grown and harvested by black slaves from rice growing zones of Africa.  Thus the early success in rice production in North America was possible due to a skilled, slave labor force. (Thomas, 1999)

1733         John Bartram of Philadelphia began correspondence with Collinson, Miller, and others.  Their exchange is the likely source of pawpaw, sourwood, and other American plants introduced to cultivation in Europe.  (Spongberg, 1990)

1733         John Kay patented the fly-shuttle, which quickened the weaving of cloth, thus mechanizing weaving - while the generation of thread through spinning remained a cottage industry.  In 1764, James Hargreaves’s spinning jenny made the thread generating process more efficient.  Further improvements in bleaching and dyeing as well as the steam-powering of looms would change the British textile industry - with production soaring from 2.5 million pounds in 1760 to 22 million pounds in the 1780s. (Milestones, Twilight, 1974)

1735       Linnaeus arrived in Holland (for a 3-year stay), visiting the Amsterdam Hortus botanicus on his first day.  In Holland Linnaeus would gain the respect and support of three important botanists: Herman Boerhaave, Jan Frederik Gronovius, and Johannes Burman.  Through Burman he gained the acquaintance and support of George Clifford, wealthy banker and owner of de Hartecamp.  Since purchasing that estate in 1709, Clifford had transformed it into a botanist’s paradise of exotic plants.  During his three years in Holland, Linnaeus published 14 books, laying the groundwork for his entire career.  (Stafleu, 1971)

1737       Linnaeus authored Hortus Cliffortianus, with illustrations by Ehret.  This record of plants cultivated by George Clifford in his garden at Hartekamp (Holland) is the forerunner of Species Plantarum.  The illustrations demonstrate Linnaeus’ belief that botanical drawings should be of superb detail and must result from close collaboration between botanist and artist.  In his introduction, Linnaeus waxed “I gazed at Your garden in the very center of Holland bright with flowers, between Haarlem and Leiden, a charming spot between two thoroughfares, where boats, where carts pass by; my eyes were captivated by so many masterpieces of nature...”  (Stafleu, 1971)  (HNT)

1737         The magnificent Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora (introduced from Southeastern North America to Europe by 1730) flowered in August at the London home of Charles Wagner, First Lord of the Admiralty.  Georg Ehret immortalized this event with a sumptuous and justifiably famous illustration.  Ehret, an apprentice gardener, had learned his artistic skills from his father during his youth in Heidelberg, Germany.  (Grimshaw, 1998)

1737       Johannes Burman published Thesaurus zeylanicus, using plant specimens from Ceylon that were collected by Paulus Hermann and Jan Hertog.  In the following two years Burman published Rariorum africanum plantarum decades 1-X based on drawings made at the Cape of Good Hope by Hendrik Claudius. (Stafleu, 1971)

1738         J. A. Külbel began his work on soil quality, stimulated by the offer of a prize on this subject by the Royal Academy of Bordeaux.  One of his conclusions (that was cited in the work of Linnaeus) was that humus content is important to soil fertility.  (Morton, 1981)

1739       Gronovius published the first part of Flora virginica (the second part came in 1743).  His work was based on collections made by John Clayton, an amateur botanist who moved to America in 1705 and served as Clerk of Gloucester County, Virginia.  Flora virginica appears to be the earliest work by an author other than Linnaeus that followed the sexual system.  Gronovius died in 1762; sixteen years later his herbarium was sold at public auction.  (Stafleu, 1971)

1739       Buffon (Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon), at age 32, was appointed to oversee the Jardin du Roi, which was under the direction of Antoine de Jussieu.  By this year the Jardin was in deplorable financial condition, Jussieu was forced to spend his own income to purchase and ship plants.  Given his stature and goals, Buffon would lead the transformation of this garden and the creation of the Cabinet du Roi, all destined to become elements of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle.  During redevelopment of the grounds, Jussieu began his famous rearrangement of plantings to reflect the natural order of the vegetable kingdom.  (Duval, transl. 1982)

1739       About 500,000 people died in Ireland due to widespread crop failure of potatoes. [See 1845](Ponting, 1991)

1741         The President of the First Continental Congress, Henry Middleton, began creating his gardens at Middleton Place, South Carolina.  (McGuire in Punch 1992)

1742       From Rio de Janeiro, the mango was introduced to the Barbados.  (Sauer, 1993)

1742       From 1742-1745 Pehr Kalm explored North America, collecting plants for introduction to Sweden.  His work resulted in a three volume publication, En Resa till Norra America, issued 1753-1761.  (Stafleu, 1971)

1744       Rules were established for the game of cricket.  Although a variety of woods has been utilized to manufacture bats for this game, a variety of white willow (Salix alba var. caerulea) has proven to provide the best wood.  Trees of this cricket bat willow are about 15 years old and around 20 meters tall when harvested.  (Lewington, 1990)

1745       Pierre Poivre, recovering in Batavia from the loss of his right arm as result of injuries received when English seamen captured the French vessel on which he sailed from China, first conceived his plan to create a French spice trade.  The plan involved cultivating stock plants of valuable tropical crops on two islands controlled by France, Mauritius and Reunion (which was called Bourbon Island), from whence they could be used to supply material around the world.  His idea was supported in France, leading to establishment of the Jardin des Pamplemousses (the Grapefruit Garden) on Mauritius, at the former site of the Jardin de Montplaisir.  By 1749 Poivre had begun sending material to the garden, everything from sweet peas to cacao.  Under perilous circumstances, he eventually obtained his most important material, nutmeg from Manilla and clove trees from Timor.  Poivre returned to France in 1757.  (Duval, 1982) [See 1767]

1745         J. T. Needham observed that pollen grains burst open when placed in water.  Seeing similar exploded grains on the stigmas of flowers he was examining, Needham concluded that the globular substance emitted by the pollen fertilized the ovules.  Botanists had observed that the style is often filled with tissue, suggesting that a liquid, analogous to animal semen, would be necessary for fertilization from stigma to the ovules buried inside the pistil.  Needham’s conclusions were accepted and promoted by Linnaeus.  (Morton, 1981)

1747       Bernard de Jussieu received seed of Sophora japonica from d’Incarville in Beijing, via Moscow.  This shipment probably also included Koelreuteria paniculata.

1747         A process to extract sugar from beet roots was developed by Andreas Margraff.  It was not until 1877 that a highly productive process would be devised.  At the end of the 19th century, sugar beet production expanded greatly in the US.  Through selection by specialists, the sugar content of beets increased from just 2% in the 19th century to over 20%.  (Simpson, 1989)

1747         Dr. James Lind experimented with 12 sailors who had scurvy and discovered that consuming lemons and oranges for 6 days effected great improvement.  Nearly 50 years passed before the British admiralty required that sailors receive daily lemon or lime juice.  Scurvy is understood now to be a nutritional disease caused by lack of adequate Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).  Fresh fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of this vitamin.  (Levetin & McMahon, 1996) [See 1937]

1748       Michel Adanson, a student of Bernard de Jussieu, arrived in Africa to collect until 1754.

1749         A near century old female specimen of the Mediterranean fan palm, Chaemerops humilis, had flowered for years in Berlin without fruiting.  By 1751 Gleditsch reported that in 1749 he had applied pollen from a male plant grown in Leipzig to the flowers that remained fresh on one branch of the female plant.  The seed produced proved viable, thus further confirming the male role of pollen.  (Morton, 1981)

1750       Slaves from Africa were traded for gold and rum.  At the African source, one hundred gallons of rum would purchase a male slave, 85 gallons an adult woman, and 65 gallons a child.  At the same time, the average selling price for a slave delivered to the West Indies was £20 sterling.  (Schlebecker, 1975)

1751       Given as the publication date for his Philosophia Botanica, this year marked the coming together of various lines of thought that Linnaeus had outlined in numerous earlier publications, beginning with Fundamenta Botanica and Bibliotheca botanica in 1736.  The first chapter dealt with the development of botany as a study, denoting various sorts of people who had contributed to the science.  Categories included every kind, from phytologists (authors) and botanophili (amateurs) to adonides (professors), ichniographi (illustrators), commentators, describers, monographers, methodici (systematists), institutores (textbook authors), sexualists (himself, alone), and eristici (the controversial ones).  The fifth chapter explained his understanding of sex as an essential basis for understanding plant life.  Fundamental opinions of his were expressed in such statements as: “We hold that in the beginning there were created a single sexual pair of every species of living beings” and “Omne vivum ex ovo” (all life springs from eggs).  At one point Linnaeus compares the floral calyx to a nuptial bed, the corolla to its curtains, but also, “the calyx might be regarded as the labia majora or the foreskin; one could regard the corolla as the labia minora.”  (Stafleu, 1971)

1751       Miller planted tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) seed received from French Jesuit Father, Pierre Nicholas le Cheron d’Incarville, stationed at the mission in Beijing.  Once introduced to North America, this tree would escape and become quite common - even invasive.  Its popular fame is as the tree that grew in Brooklyn. (Spongberg, 1990)

1751         Pehr Kalm, a Linnean student and botanical explorer, noted that Native Americans treated eye diseases with a concoction of water in which witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) had been boiled.  The common name for this plant, howeve