A Brief History of Oxford Botany
Department of Plant Sciences today, which still bears the name "Forestry" at the main entrance. Department of Plant Sciences will merge with Zoology in 2022 to form the new Department of Biology, and move to the new research building in 2024.
There were two schools of botanical studies that shape our today's science: the Greek philosophers emphasised the nature of plants, while the Roman writers discussed how plants can be used in medicine and agriculture. In particular, in the early centuries of 1000s, Greek science was rediscovered. The Schola Medica Salernitana, a medical school in Salerno, Italy, was particularly important for translating ancient Greek manuscripts on plants into Latin.
Such interest in plant studies began at Oxford on 25 July 1621, when the Oxford Botanic Garden was formally established. Before its establishment, college fellows at Oxford studied plants to teach its physicians about medicinal plants.
Scientific methodology and ways of thinking have been rapidly evolving since the 15th century. Scholars advocate that science needs reasoning, observations, and hypotheses, instead of handed-down authority. This led to many corner stones of scientific theories that are influential until today: Darwinian evolution, Mendelian genetics, to name a few. Also, many social and commercial changes around the world drive botanical research: for example, the discovery of quinine and rubber as important medicinal and economic crops.
Father of English Botany, William Turner (1508–1568) was educated at Oxford and earned his doctor of medicine.
By the early 17th century, Oxford taught three formal courses: theology, law and medicine. If you were interested in natural history in those times, the only opportunities were in medical education. Early modern botanic gardens served as a living catalogue of useful plants: they housed medicinal plants which were labelled with their correct name. However, the Bobarts (Jacob the elder and the younger), when establishing the Oxford Botanic Garden, went a bit further and came close to John Evelyn's concept of a 'Philosophico-Medical Garden'.
Robert Morison (1620–1683) proposed the first systematic classification of plants in Oxford. He became the inaugurated Regius Professor of Botany and gave his first botanical lecture on 5 September 1670 at the centre of the Botanic Garden.
Robert Morison
The Bobarts developed a keen interest in botany around Oxford: where the unusual plants grew, how to press the plants, and the making of a 'Botanologicall Book'. They provided teaching at the Garden and Jacob the Elder influenced hist most illustrious pupil, William Sherard, who was surprisingly a law student at St John's. Sherard established the Sherardian Chair of Botany after his death, a chair that still continues today.
The focus of botanical studies was mainly systematic: classifying plants. There was also some side branches of physiological study, especially in mid-17th century when botanists searched for systems that might be equivalent to the circulation of the blood in the human body. Botanical studies were mainly driven by medical curiosity.
Later botanical research was more linked to the society. In the 1770s, Joseph Priestley showed that plants demonstrated the 'effects of restoring air which was injured by the burning of candles' (now we know that this is photosynthesis which converts carbon dioxide to oxygen). This linked plants and food. Charles Daubeny, who was originally a Professor of Chemistry, joined Botany as the fifth Sherardian professor in 1834 to study soil nutrients and fertilisers, using field trials in the Garden.
One must not forget the Forestry when talking about applied botanical research. Forest studies were very undervalued as a scientific discipline, yet in the mid-19th century there was a severe short supply of forest specialists across the British Empire. Forests were showing great economic value and thus influenced the establishment of the British Forestry Commission in 1919 and the movement of the Imperial Forest School to Oxford. St John's owned the Bagley Wood and offered it for forestry teaching.
Bagley Wood survived since before 1600. It is owned by St John's and was an important teaching facility for forestry students.
This focus only shifted to broader subjects until recently, most notably between the wars in the mid-20th century. This included genetics, mycology, and ecology. However, this was during the hardest times in humanities and the Department of Botany was barely functional. After the wars, the Botany department left the Garden and moved next to the Forestry Department in the now Science Area. The Garden was no longer involved in teaching and research since then.
No one knows what botanical research in Oxford may be in the future. After merging the Departments of Agriculture, Botany, and Forestry in 1985 and the closure of Oxford Forestry Institute in 2002, we are seeing a major revolution: the Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology will merge into the Department of Biology in 2022 and move to a new research building in 2024. This may be well-aligned with Henry Acland's mid-19th century dream of zoology and plant sciences working together in a shared space. While the fate of botanical research in Oxford is unpredictable, the importance and motivation of botanical research will remain unchanged for the benefits plant bring to our lives and society.