The Phytologist

"Phytologist" redirects here. For the academic profession, see Botanist.

The Phytologist was a British botanical journal, appearing first as Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany. It was founded in 1841 as a monthly, edited by George Luxford.[1] Luxford died in 1854, and the title was taken over by Alexander Irvine and William Pamplin, who ran it to 1863 with subtitle "a botanical journal".[2][3]

The proprietor for the first series was Edward Newman, also a contributor.[4] The publisher was John Van Voorst.[5] The journal never made money. Newman used its pages to attack Vestiges of Creation (1844), in an outspoken signed review that stood out from the mass of anonymous comment. Luxford's overall editorial policy, however, gave space to those supporting transmutation of species.[6] The Phytologist, quite unofficially, became the house journal of the Botanical Society of London; and Hewett Watson of the Society a prominent contributor.[7] In the early issues Luxford wrote a series of ten articles on myco-heterotrophy, around Monotropa hypopithys, and prompted sharp debate.[8]

  1. ^ Allen, D. E. "Luxford, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17231. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Allen, D. E. "Irvine, Alexander". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14465. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "The Phytologist: a botanical journal. - Biodiversity Heritage Library". Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  4. ^ Foote, Yolanda. "Newman, Edward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ John Stuart Mill (1 February 2015). Miscellaneous Writings. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. pp. 37–8. ISBN 978-1-4426-5589-8.
  6. ^ James A. Secord (20 September 2003). Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. University of Chicago Press. pp. 453–4. ISBN 978-0-226-15825-9.
  7. ^ Egerton, Frank N. (2010). "History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 36: Hewett Watson, Plant Geographer and Evolutionist". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 91 (3): 294–312. doi:10.1890/0012-9623-91.3.294. JSTOR bullecosociamer.91.3.294.
  8. ^ Bidartondo, Martin I. (2005). "The Evolutionary Ecology of Myco-Heterotrophy". The New Phytologist. 167 (2): 335–352. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01429.x. JSTOR 3694504. PMID 15998389.