Two letters between preeminent botanists, concerning classifications of exotic specimens, Dryander’s work for the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, all to the backdrop of the “glorious revolution” in France. Written in the first eighteen months of the abolition of the Ancien régime, these letters elegantly demonstrate the international exchanges of scientific knowledge, botanical specimens and seeds, alongside radical constitutional and democratic ideals.
In the first letter, Dryander, who is sending his correspondent pages from his Kew catalogue, addresses various errors and disagreements, name checking his fellow botanists Daniel Solander and Sir Joseph Banks: “the origin of the blunder was, that I wrote this for the Herbarium, and that was the name Solander had given it, but as it is called in the supplement Chrysocoma sericia, I altered the trivial name to sericea, in printing it” and “I am decidedly of the opinion, that the Morus papyrifera is a new genus, but as I cannot persuade Sir Joseph that is so, I sent it yesterday to press under the old name, very much against my own opinion”.
There follows a lengthy indecision over which class in which to put Heritiera, a tropical plant named for his correspondent, hesitating between the genus dioecia or polygamia, as well as an offer to send pressed specimens from Kew to Paris in exchange for those received from L’Héritier.
In the letter written in 1790, Dryander again refers to the shipment of plates and a book by Swedish naturalist Olof Rudbeck, which he hopes will sell as well as possible, despite damage caused by transport. He also sends his correspondent the seeds of an unusual plant, Bartsia viscosa [Viscous Eufragia].
Dryander adds a comment to this second letter on the political climate, referring to the recent storming of the Bastille by the anachronistic term “your glorious revolution”, riffing on the popular name for the 1688 deposition of King James II:
“I congratulate you on our peace with Spain, as you may now go with your glorious revolution undisturbed. I hope you will be satisfied with the conduct of our Court. I fear Burke’s book will do harm; I mean promote political bigotry”.
His comment on Edmund Burke refers to his Reflections on the Revolution in France, an incendiary tract defending the British monarchy and conservatism, published in the same month as this letter was written. Burke’s characterisation of the common man as the “swinish multitude” not only did harm, but also inspired two of the great refutations in Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Men, and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
Swedish-born Jonas Carlsson Dryander (1748-1810) worked in England from 1777. He was botanist and librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society and great reorganiser of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Under his direction, Kew Gardens became an important centre for specimen collecting and the study of economic botany. His correspondent was the magistrate and botanist Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800), who took a particular interest in newly discovered species, collaborating with Redouté on the publication of his work.
L’Heritier was born into the Parisian bourgeoisie, however his liberal leanings and status as a scientist and magistrate protected him from the early days of the French Revolution, in which, as evidenced by these letters, he continued has botanical work whilst even sitting as a judge on a revolutionary tribunal. He was, however, imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. Though a self-taught botanist, he had many correspondents amongst his Enlightenment peers, avidly exchanging information and specimens for his herbarium.
