Pre-Linnaean Plant Sexualities in England and France, c. 1670–1720

Abstract

abstract:This article explores some of the analogies that botanists in England and France developed between c. 1670-1720 to demonstrate that plants reproduce sexually. By delving into the contributions of several understudied figures, I seek to show that plant sexuality was neither the grand discovery of Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, as scholars have often supposed, nor a monolithic stance that provided an obvious taxonomical foundation. While Carl Linnaeus ordered plants according to their marital status, earlier botanists mostly analogized plants to "lower" animals, and, accordingly, even the most flamboyant among them avoided the charges of irreligion that beset Linnaeus.