BICENTENARY of LINNAEUS

CELEBRATION OF BICENTENARY OF LINNAEUS AT CALICUT

Text of the talk by D. C. S. Raju, F.L.S., Central National Herbarium, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah

Honourable Vice Chancellor Dr. Purushottaman, Respected Dr. Gopalakrishnan, Dr.Achutan, Prof. Manilal, and Friends of this August meeting, I have great pleasure to be with you  in  a  wonderful   habitat  with  a glorious past.

I am not going to speak much of Linne as Dr Gopalakrishnan spoke of categories, species and conservation of natural resources but I wish to mention the role played by people of Kerala, during 16th -18th centuries, when explorations for trade and scientific knowledge were going on. It is strange enough  that Calicut was hospitable to seafarers 500 yrs ago just as it is a travellers’ paradise today. Spice trade from Cochin encouraged  botanical studies by Europeans just as Calicut University  is  promoting taxonomic  research  on  Flora of Malabar  today.

Now coming to the point of plant wealth of Kerala and its relevance to Linnaean Classics  I should first  make reference to the Dutch East India Company. We very well know that  Van Rheede an army officer returned from Holland as Governor of Malabar. He  got translations of Sanskrit texts  and brought out Hortus Malabaricus 300 years ago. But it was George Clifford, the richest Banker of Amsterdam who actually cultivated many trees of Malabar at Hartecamp. He also maintained a zoo as it was  a fashion those days.

The young Linnaeus was lucky to be in the employ of Clifford as a physician and pursue his botanical research for over 2 yrs. Well, as I am curious about red banana of Kerala, Linne was also interested in the plantain from Malabar. He grew this plantain in a hot house, got it flowered and fruited and fully described. This work on banana is a rare book as only 500 copies were printed. One copy is right here as exhibit of 1736. Along with this Linne also gave the world a classification of Nature to distinguish various kinds of plants, animals and rocks. Linne explored Lapland covering 1400 miles and made name in geography. As he was a doctor, Linne prepared Materia Medica in 1749 and included many indian plants. He obtained seeds from Aleppo through friends like Russell and pupils like Koenig working in Coramandel. All our plants were classified according to sexual system and given latin names like Sonerila, Areca, Myristica, Oryza, Melastoma etc. For many names Linne cited Hortus Malabaricus tables and since 1753 his binomial system became standard for whole world.

Following Linnaean system of nomenclature T.F. Bourdillon wrote the  first  Forest Flora  of Kerala, 85 yrs ago, which is really an Indian Flora of plant geographers as Malabarica and Coromandelia are natural regions of India. The Dutch Professor J. Burman cultivated Cinnamon trees and published Flora Malabarica in 1769, whereas his son N. L. Burman  brought out a Flora Indica in 1768 while Linne was revising his Species Plantarum.

Incidentally I like to mention here that Loeseneriella bourdillonii (Gamble) Raju is a  Hippocratea species in honour of Bourdillon with new status. Dr Buchanan, Cleghorn, Beddome, Wight, Fischer, Gamble, Hohenacker, Rama Rao and others studied rich vegetation of  Kerala when this area was quite sylvan and not industrialised and there were no universities. Now the gigantic trees are gradually disappearing  before their life histories are known, Habitats are shrinking with unforeseen results after  few generations. A single  Linnean species  in food-chain or ecosystem  makes a difference if it is a  key species.

Very few botanists in our country know the true nature of  Indian vegetation as enunciated by Prof. Van Steenis. Indian vegetation is part of monsoon forests of Asia  with moist deciduous  elements dominated by Dipterocarpus family. The evergreen forests of Assam valley with  Dipterocarpus turbinatus, D. manni, Shorea robusta in indo-gangetic plains, Shorea tumbuggaia, Shorea talura in Eastern ghats, Hopea parviflora  right near Calicut University, Vatica sp in Sahyadri range of Western ghats are pointers with their winged seeds  as just dipterocarps in relation to regional habitat at macro and micro levels   for proper evaluation  to   ensure conservation of plant resources .

A Flora of Kerala is the immediate need of the day as it was  for Linne  in 1745 to write a Swedish Flora for many practical purposes. Linne studied Wild Rye (Elymus) and somebody is recently searching wild nutmegs of Kerala for a gene bank. I am myself wondering about Poeciloneuron and Myristica malabarica, as I have not seen them  though they are noblest trees of Malabar. Linnaeus cultured pearls, cured cancers, talked of solar energy. He classified diseases and classified scientists and systems of classification. How  many of us know Linnaeus is called Dioscorides 2nd  whereas we call him as Prince of Botanists.

I am sure that Prof. Manilal and all his colleagues would simulate a school of Linnaeus in Calicut to unravel mysteries of biology, reproduction and chromosome behavior in the footsteps of Janaki Ammal the great botanist who reorganised Botanical Survey of India. With these few words of enthusiasm  I join you all and thank you for the hospitality.

INDIAN ASSOCIATION FOR ANGIOSPERM TAXONOMY

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