In my last column, I discussed herbaria and my newfound interest in them (Flannery, 2011). Even though this month's theme is human health, I'm not ready to leave my new love yet, and I think I can justify sticking with the topic, at least peripherally. After all, it was human health that for centuries drove the study of plants, and to a certain extent it still does, as botanists travel the world seeking plants with medicinal properties. The first herbaria were tied to medical schools.
Helen Hewson (1999) noted that botanical illustration, botanical gardens, and herbaria all developed at about the same time in the mid-16th century and all met the need of helping botanists compare species from different localities. As printed tomes on medicine became available, there was the concomitant need to ensure that two authors were talking about the same plant. Nomenclature had yet to be...
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