Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16250

    Flower reproductive organs

    Date
    1674
    Creator
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p148r
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 319mm
    width (page): 225mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Sectional views of the changing forms of ovaries of various plant species’ flowers viewed under magnification, including:

    Figure 286 [upper left]: Chestnut tree, Castanea, referred to by Malpighi as the same.
    Figure 287 [upper right]: Cypress tree, Cupressus, referred to as Cupresso.
    Figure 288 [lower right]: Ryegrass, Lolium, referred to as Lolii.
    Figure 289 [lower left]: Grass, Graminae, referred to as Phalaridis.
    Figure 290 [lower left]: Millet, Pennisetum glaucum, referred to as Milii.
    Figure 291 [lower left]: Wheat, Triticum, and reed, Phragmites, referred to as Tritico and Avenae respectively.

    Each drawn on an individual slip of paper and arranged on the page for printing. Inscribed: ‘Tab L’ in top right-hand corner.

    Page 148 from MS/103/1, later published as Tab. L in Marcello Malpighi's Anatome plantarum (1675).

    Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), Italian biologist and physician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1669.
    Object history
    Marcello Malpighi’s research on the anatomy of plants was encouraged and supported by the Royal Society, as evidenced by correspondence between him and the then-Secretary, Henry Oldenburg FRS (1619-1677) in the 1660s and 1670s [MS/103/1].

    An abstracted version of his work in this area was first read at a Society meeting on 7 December 1671 [JBO/4, pp.216-217]. The full manuscript of Anatome Plantarum, together with the frontispiece artwork and these plates, was received and read on 28 January 1674/75 [MS/103/1-2].

    It was ordered for printing by the Society’s printer John Martin in June 1675 [CMO/1/221]. The published work consists of the text of Anatome Plantarum and De ovo incubato as an appendix, and 61 plates illustrating each [54 and 7 respectively].
    Related fellows
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Italy
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline