|
''The Botanic Garden'' (1791) is a set of two poems, ''The Economy of Vegetation'' and ''The Loves of the Plants'', by the British poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. ''The Economy of Vegetation'' celebrates technological innovation, scientific discovery and offers theories concerning contemporary scientific questions, such as the history of the cosmos. The more popular ''Loves of the Plants'' promotes, revises and illustrates Linnaeus's classification scheme for plants. One of the first popular science books, the intent of ''The Botanic Garden'' is to pique readers' interest in science while educating them at the same time. By embracing Linnaeus's sexualized language, which anthropomorphizes plants, Darwin makes botany interesting and relevant to his readers, but his reliance on conventional images of women when describing plants and flowers reinforces traditional gender stereotypes. Darwin emphasizes the connections between humanity and plants, arguing that they are all part of the same natural world and that sexual reproduction is at the heart of evolution (ideas that his grandson, Charles Darwin, would later turn into a full-fledged theory of evolution). This evolutionary theme continues in ''The Economy of Vegetation'' which contends that scientific progress is part of evolution and urges its readers to celebrate inventors and scientific discoveries in a language usually reserved for heroes or artistic geniuses. Because amateur botany was popular in Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century, ''The Botanic Garden'', despite its high cost, was a bestseller. Nevertheless, the poem's radical political elements, such as its support of the French revolution and its criticism of slavery, angered conservative British readers. Darwin's attempt to popularize science and to convey the wonders of scientific discovery and technological innovation through poetry helped initiate a tradition of popular science writing that continues to the present day. ==Historical background== In the 1760s and 1770s, botany became increasingly popular in Britain because of the translation of Linnaeus's works into English. One of the most prominent books about botany was William Withering's ''Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great Britain'' (1776), which used Linnaeus's system for classifying plants. Withering's book went through multiple editions and became the standard text on British plants for a generation. The book delighted and intrigued experts, amateurs, and children alike.〔Shteir, pp. 18—28.〕 One of the effects of Withering's book was that it provoked a debate over the translation of Linnaeus's works. Withering aimed for an Anglicized translation of Linnaeus's Latin that also stripped the nomenclature of its sexualized language. Although he wanted to make botany widely available, he believed that women readers should be protected from any mention of sexuality.〔 In his preface he writes: "from an apprehension that botany in an English dress would become a favourite amusement with the ladies, . . . it was thought proper to drop the sexual distinctions in the titles to the Classes and Orders."〔Quoted in Shteir, p. 23.〕 Darwin held the opposite position; he maintained that Linnaeus's works should be translated as literally as possible and that the sexual references in the nomenclature should be retained. In 1783 and 1787, the Botanical Society of Lichfield, founded by Darwin and several of his friends specifically to translate Linnaeus's works, issued their own English translation, ''A System of Vegetables'', that categorized over 1400 plants. Assisted by Samuel Johnson, they coined over fifty new botanical words; it is this work, along with the group's ''The Families of Plants'' that introduced the words ''stamen'' and ''pistil'' into the English language, for example. By 1796 their translation had prevailed and Withering was forced to adopt their vocabulary in later editions of his work.〔Shteir, pp. 18—28; Browne, pp. 600—602.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Botanic Garden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|