Editing Botany (section)

=== Early botany ===
[[File:Cork Micrographia Hooke.png|thumb|alt=engraving of cork cells from Hooke's Micrographia, 1665|An engraving of the cells of [[Cork oak|cork]], from [[Robert Hooke]]'s ''[[Micrographia]]'', 1665]]
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Botany originated as [[herbalism]], the study and use of plants for their [[Medicinal plants|possible medicinal properties]].{{sfn|Sumner|2000|p = 16}} The early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early botanical works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BCE,{{sfn|Reed|1942|pp = 7–29}}{{sfn|Oberlies|1998|p = 155}} [[Ancient Egypt]],{{sfn|Manniche|2006}} in archaic [[Avestan language|Avestan]] writings, and in works from China purportedly from before 221 BCE.{{sfn|Reed|1942|pp = 7–29}}{{sfn|Needham|Lu|Huang|1986}}

Modern botany traces its roots back to [[Ancient Greece]] specifically to [[Theophrastus]] ({{circa|371}}–287 BCE), a student of [[Aristotle]] who invented and described many of its principles and is widely regarded in the [[scientific community]] as the "Father of Botany".{{sfn|Greene|1909|pp = 140–142}} His major works, ''[[Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus)|Enquiry into Plants]]'' and ''On the Causes of Plants'', constitute the most important contributions to botanical science until the [[Middle Ages]], almost seventeen centuries later.{{sfn|Greene|1909|pp = 140–142}}{{sfn|Bennett|Hammond|1902|p = 30}}

Another work from Ancient Greece that made an early impact on botany is {{Lang|la|[[De materia medica]]}}, a five-volume encyclopedia about [[Herbalism|preliminary herbal medicine]] written in the middle of the first century by Greek physician and pharmacologist [[Pedanius Dioscorides]]. {{Lang|la|De materia medica}} was widely read for more than 1,500 years.{{sfn|Mauseth|2003|p = 532}} Important contributions from the [[Islamic Golden Age|medieval Muslim world]] include [[Ibn Wahshiyya]]'s ''[[Nabatean Agriculture]]'', [[Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī]]'s (828–896) the ''Book of Plants'', and [[Ibn Bassal]]'s ''The Classification of Soils''. In the early 13th century, [[Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati]], and [[Ibn al-Baitar]] (d. 1248) wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner.{{sfn|Dallal|2010|p = 197}}{{sfn|Panaino|2002|p = 93}}{{sfn|Levey|1973|p = 116}}

In the mid-16th century, [[botanical garden]]s were founded in a number of Italian universities. The [[Orto botanico di Padova|Padua botanical garden]] in 1545 is usually considered to be the first which is still in its original location. These gardens continued the practical value of earlier "physic gardens", often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for suspected medicinal uses. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject. Lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe; the first in England was the [[University of Oxford Botanic Garden]] in 1621.{{sfn|Hill|1915}}

German physician [[Leonhart Fuchs]] (1501–1566) was one of "the three German fathers of botany", along with theologian [[Otto Brunfels]] (1489–1534) and physician [[Hieronymus Bock]] (1498–1554) (also called Hieronymus Tragus).{{sfn|National Museum of Wales|2007}}{{sfn|Yaniv|Bachrach|2005|p = 157}} Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification.

Physician [[Valerius Cordus]] (1515–1544) authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal ''Historia Plantarum'' in 1544 and a [[pharmacopoeia]] of lasting importance, the ''Dispensatorium'' in 1546.{{sfn|Sprague|Sprague|1939}} Naturalist [[Conrad von Gesner]] (1516–1565) and herbalist [[John Gerard]] (1545 – {{circa|1611|lk=no}}) published herbals covering the supposed medicinal uses of plants. Naturalist [[Ulisse Aldrovandi]] (1522–1605) was considered the ''father of natural history'', which included the study of plants. In 1665, using an early microscope, [[Polymath]] [[Robert Hooke]] discovered [[cell (biology)|cells]] (a term he coined) in [[cork (material)|cork]], and a short time later in living plant tissue.{{sfn|Waggoner|2001}}