Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology

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118 Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology, Vol. 10 (2005) Nicolas Robin & Frank Hellwig 1. Introductory questions concerning the natural method and its applications Friedrich Sigmund Voigt (1781-1850), professor of botany and director of the botanical garden in Jena since 1807, considered himself the first in Germany 2 to introduce Goethe’s idea of the Metamorphose der Pflanzen (1790) in his textbooks of botany, and also the first to include the natural families of plants following the “méthode naturelle” developed by the French botanist Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) in his Genera plantarum (1789) 3. These were included in his Darstellung des natürlichen Pflanzensystems von Jussieu 4 (1806). A.-L. de Jussieu’s natural method had been spread in the German-speaking world first through the translation of the Genera plantarum by the Swiss Paul Usteri 5 (1768- 1831). The natural method developed by A.-L. de Jussieu as well as the works of Joseph Gaertner 6 on carpology contributed to the basic methodological changes in the the field of botany at the end of the 18 th century. James L. Larson wrote that “both men [A.-L. de Jussieu and J. Gaertner] were convinced that the achievement of a natural method would transform botany from a science of memory and nomenclature into a new science […]” 7. The natural method results in a classification which can be understood as an approximation towards an ultimate goal: the construction of a natural system. This aim had been exposed already by Carl von Linné in the form of his Fragmenta Methodi naturalis, published respectively in his Systema naturae (1735) and later in his Fundamenta botanica (1736) 8. Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841), author of the remarkable Theorie élementaire 9, 2 Fr. S. Voigt stated this in the introduction of his Lehrbuch der Botanik (1827): “Den er [Fr. S. Voigt about himself] möchte wohl in Teutschland so ziemlich der erste gewesen seyn, welcher die Ansicht von der Metamorphose der Pflanzen, die genauere Darstellung des natürlichen Pflanzensystems, […], in ein Lehrbuch der Botanik aufgenommen hat.” Voigt, Fr. S. Lehrbuch der Botanik. Jena, A. Schmid, 1827: p. iv. 3 Jussieu, A.-L. Genera plantarum […]. Paris, Hérissant & Barrois, 1789. Concerning the natural method developed by A.-L. de Jussieu see Stevens, P. F. The development of biological systematics […]. New-York, Columbia University Press, 1994. 4 Voigt, Fr. S. Darstellung des natürlichen Pflanzensystems von Jussieu. Leipzig, 1806. 5 See Jussieu, A.-L. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita […] recudi curavit notisque auxit Paulus Usteri. Turici Helvetorum, Ziegleri & Filiorum, 1791. The french original was known to Fr. S. Voigt and also used and cited in his textbooks. 6 See Gaertner, J. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. Stuttgart, Typis Academiae Carolinae, 3. vol. 7 Larson, J. L. Interpreting Nature. The science of Living Form from Linnaeus to Kant. Batltimore & London, The John Hopkins University Press, 1994. 8 For further ideas on the concept of natural system in the textbooks of C. von Linné see: Müller-Wille, S. Botanik und weltweiter Handel. Zur begründung eines Natürlichen Systems der Pflanzen durch Carl von Linné (1707-1778). Berlin, VWB, 1999. S. Müller-Wille explained: “Tatsächlich versprachen sowohl das Systema naturae von 1735 als auch die Fundamenta botanica von 1736, in naher Zukunft „Bruchstücke“ als eine bloße Liste von Gattungsnamen heraus, die in durchnummerierte „natürliche Ordnungen (ordines naturales)“ gegliedert waren- ohne jeden sichtbaren Versuch, diese natürlichen Ordnungen in Definitionen zu kennzeichnen.” Müller-Wille, S. 1999, p. 81. 9 De Candolle, A. P. Théorie élémentaire de la botanique […].Paris, Déterville, 1813.
Plant systematics in Jena during the early 19 th century presented three categories of natural methods to his readers 10, first the tentative method of the French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), then the general comparison of plant features as carried out by Michel Adanson 11 (1727-1806) in his “Familles des Plantes” (1763), and finally the simultaneous use and weighting of every plant characteristic, as in the works of Bernard and Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu 12. As early as 1773 the latter presented this idea of weighting and subordination of plant characteristics to the Académie des Sciences in a paper on the Ranunculaceae (crowfoot) in which the species were described with the terminology of M. Adanson. Considering this principle of subordination as well as the comparative anatomy of fructifications and seeds he later laid the foundation for his “méthode naturelle” and consequently the physical basis of his natural orders in his Genera plantarum (1789). The notion of Methodus naturalis is introduced in the introduction of the Genera plantarum in the following way: “Haec dudum quaesita ordinatio, inter omnès longè praecipua, sola verè uniformis ac simplex, affinitatum legibus constanter obtemperans, est methodus dicta naturalis quae omnigenas connectit plantas vinculo indiviso, & gradatim à simplici ad compositam, à minimâ ad maximam, continuatâ serie procedit, […]” 13 Few years later A.-L. de Jussieu contrasted in his article méthode naturelle des végétaux (1824) available in the Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles 14 the concepts of natural methods and systems, the latter being described as systematic tables where the organisms were arranged in a specific order. He aspired to develop a continuous natural classification of the plant kingdom; the idea of continuity is also omnipresent in his treatment of the natural method. To complete this general introduction we want to give an additional explanation of the difference in the meaning of the word “méthode” in French and “Methode” in German. In a first sense, the German “Methode” and the French “méthode” are the well-known elements of logic applied to natural history. For example P. F. Stevens wonders whether A.-L. de Jussieu’s method can be interpreted through René Descartes’s Discours de la méthode (1637), with the tools of the Cartesian science 15. However, the French “méthode” has a second meaning, precisely at the time of A.-L. de Jussieu; the word was used in fact to characterize the temporary and imperfect draft of a natural 10 Ebenda: p. 67. Concerning A. P. De Candolle and the notions of method and system see Drouin, J.-M. Classification des sciences et classification des plantes chez Augustin-Pyramus De Candolle, in: Revue de synthèse, 1-2, 1994: pp. 149-165. 11 M. Adanson was certainly disregarded because of his rejection of C. von Linné’s binomial nomenclature, but may be regarded as one of the precursors of phyletic systematists in the 20 th century. See Stuessy, T. F. Plant taxonomy. New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1990. 12 Thus A.-P. De Candolle defined the term charakter: „Un caractère est une des manières d´envisager les organes en général, appliquer à un organe en particulier. „ See De Candolle, A.-P. 1813, op. cit. note 17: p. 150. 13 De Jussieu, A.-L. 1789, op. cit. note 3 : p. xxxv. 14 De Jussieu, A.-L. [Artikel] Méthode naturelle des Végétaux, in: Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles. Strasbourg & Paris, F. G. Levrault, 1824, vol. 30: pp. 426-468. 15 See Stevens, P. F. 1994. op. cit. note 3: pp. 60-62 and Planchen, A. Classification, evolution and the nature of biology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992: pp. 109-111. Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology, Vol. 10 (2005) 119
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