Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16252

    Plant seeds

    Date
    1674
    Creator
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p150r
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 319mm
    width (page): 225mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Sectional views of various impregnated plant seeds viewed under magnification, including:

    Figure 301 and 311 [upper left and lower left]: Bean, Phaseolus, referred to by Malpighi as Fabis.
    Figure 302 [upper right]: Pea, Pisum sativum, referred to as Pisis.
    Figure 303 [centre left]: White poppy, Papaver, referred to as Papaveris albi.
    Figure 304 [centre left]: Almond tree, Prunus amygdalus, referred to as Amygdalarum.
    Figure 305 [centre]: Hemp, Cannabis sativa cultivars, referred to as Cannabe.
    Figure 306 [centre right]: Purslane, Portulaca oleracea, and hyacinth, Hyacinthus, referred to as Portulaca and Hyacintho respectively.
    Figure 307 [centre left]: Green bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, referred to as Faseolis.
    Figure 308 and 309 [centre left and right]: Chickpea, Cicer arietinum, referred to as Cicercula.
    Figure 310 [centre right]: Lupine, Lupinus, referred to as the same.
    Figure 312 and 313 [lower right]: Millet, Pennisetum glaucum, referred to as Milii solis.

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

    Page 140 from MS/103/1, later published as Tab. LII 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
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