Existing comment:
Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland
Géographie des plantes Équinoxiales: Tableau physique des Andes et Pays voisins, from Essai sur le géographie des plantes
1805
hand-colored print
In 1805 Humboldt and Bonpland published this plant geography map -- which Humboldt referred to as his Naturgemälde, or his "picture of nature." It combines illusionistic watercolor with a cutaway diagram labeled with the Latin names of the plants he and Bonpland observed in South America, shown at the altitude where they found them. The columns on either side provided data on their observations climbing the Andean volcanoes Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, alongside comparative data from more familiar locales including Mont Blanc in the Alps. This map established Humboldt's concept of the unity of nature and affirmed his belief that the distribution of plants around the globe could be correlated with the altitude where they were found and the rock strata underneath. By amassing and comparing this data, Humboldt refined his theory that everything on the planet was interrelated. This idea -- that plants, animals, and climate are related in ecosystems -- is widely accepted today, but was a radical concept when Humboldt first began writing about it.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |