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SUMMARY:The love of plants: from love to sex in the history of botany - La
 urence Totelin (Cardiff University)
DTSTART:20131121T163000Z
DTEND:20131121T180000Z
UID:TALK47661@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helen Curry
DESCRIPTION:Love and sex were concepts prevalent in botanical writing well
  before Erasmus Darwin composed his _Love of the Plants_. Here I focus on 
 the Greek and Roman tradition of plant love. While the Greeks and Romans w
 ere completely ignorant of what we now recognise as the principles of plan
 t sexuality and pollination\, they used sexual vocabulary in their descrip
 tion of plants. Some of the passages where this imagery is used are well k
 nown: in particular passages relating to the reproduction of the fig and t
 he palm trees. I want to cast my net wider and show that love rather than 
 sex is the prevalent concept in ancient botany. For beside sexual lust\, a
 ncient plants felt maternal love\, filial love\, hatred and friendship. I 
 will show that this anthropomorphism in the description of plant relations
 hips has various roots: some to be found in philosophy (where the concepts
  of sympathy and antipathy are important)\; some in poetry\; some even in 
 economic thought. My sources will be varied\, ranging from the classic _Hi
 story of Plants_ of Theophrastus (fourth century BCE)\, to less well-known
  astro-botanical texts\, and passing by the poems on grafting by Columella
  (first century CE) and Palladius (fifth century CE).
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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