Matthias Schönhofer. Letters from an American Botanist: The Correspondences of Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Mühlenberg (1753–1815). (Beiträge zur Europäischen Überseegeschichte, 101.) 608 pp., apps., bibl., index. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014. €84 (paper).

Isis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred E. Schuyler
Keyword(s):  
American Botanist

scholarly journals S. W. Williams’ Relations with Asa Gray: Lifelong Friendship, Botany and Sinology

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
So Chit-Shing
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Chinese Descent ◽  
American Botanist ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Asa Gray

Abstract Samuel Wells Williams was a well-known missionary, diplomat and sinologist. In his whole life, he never gave up his pursuit on botany, however, there was not much attention to his botanical accomplishment. Williams had a lifelong friendship with Asa Gray, who was the most distinguished American botanist in the 19th century. And because of the contact, Williams related with botany indeed. In order to figure out their friendship and influence, this article is going to use the correspondences between Williams and Gray, besides the related publications. This article first presents Williams’ lifelong friendship with Gray, then, accounts for the plants and seeds which Williams gave to Gray. Finally, it will demonstrate the influence of Gray towards Williams’ contact with Ko Kun-hua, who was the first professor of Chinese descent at Harvard University.

Medicine and Morality in the Ho Family in Lijiang

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 341-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Ochs
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Botanical Nomenclature ◽  
Field Note ◽  
American Botanist ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
Local Plants ◽  
Family Based

I travelled to the Lijiang basin area of Yunnan province in the spring of 2014 to record and explore the ‘traditional’ knowledge and practice of Chinese medicine among the Ho family. The Ho family includes three generations of herbalists who combine Naxi medicinal plants, Chinese medicine diagnostics, and knowledge of Western medicine in their clinical practice. They have also created their own herbarium of over 1000 local plants, which they organise based on modern botanical nomenclature. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Austrian-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock introduced Latin botanical names to the father of Ho Shixiu, currently the oldest living Ho family member. The son of Ho Shixiu, Ho Shulong, who is now its primary caretaker, however, informed us that he was influenced by books as much as by his father’s oral teachings about medicinal plants. The youngest member of this lineage is a graduate of Yunnan Chinese Medicine University and acknowledges that his knowledge base in local ecology and medicinal plants must increase if he is to carry on the lineage. My aim is to describe both the unique aspects of the Ho family’s knowledge and its transmission, and the cultural and medical elements that have influenced and enriched them. From my perspective, these different types knowledge seem to sustain and give meaning to their family-based practice lineage. I argue that we need to carry out more ethnographic work in order to understand the relationship between medical knowledge and practice, and its social, historical, and cultural context. I hope this field note is a step in that direction.

Asa Gray. American Botanist, Friend of Darwin.

Brittonia ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Jeanne Goode ◽  
A. Hunter Dupree
Keyword(s):  
American Botanist ◽  
Asa Gray
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