ಹಸರತ್ menulis

MEMBUAT BLOG

Anda sedang kelebihan ide? Atau sedang patah hati? Atau sekadar ingin menulis komentar mengenai suatu hal? Apapun itu Anda dapat menuliskannya pada blog. Joko Nurjadi
MENULIS BLOG MUNGKIN dianggap sebagai pekerjaan mengisi waktu luang bagi kebanyakan orang pada awalnya tetapi kenyataan yang sering terjadi kemudian adalah seorang penulis blog yang aktif memerlukan waktu yang lebih dari sekadar mengisi waktu luang. Walaupun bisa jadi memerlukan waktu dan perhatian khusus, menulis blog bukanlah pekerjaan yang sia-sia. Setidaknya Anda akan mendapatkan banyak hal jika tulisan Anda mendapatkan cukup banyak perhatian pembaca. Sebuah blog dapat menimbulkan interaksi dan umpanbalik, menghasilkan informasi, pengetahuan, atau hiburan bagi pembaca, maka jangan heran kalau tulisan Anda ditunggu- tunggu, dan situs blog Anda mendapatkan tempat kehormatan terletak pada daftar bookmark pengunjung setia Anda. Jika Anda telah tertarik memublikasikan sesuatu pada blog Anda maka pertanyaan berikutnya adalah mulai dari mana dan bagaimana membuat blog? Jika itu pertanyaan Anda, maka artikel ini akan memberikan jawabannya.

Asal Mula Blog
Istilah blog berasal dari dua kata, yaitu web log. Sehingga sebuah blog dapat diartikan sebagai catatan, jurnal, diary, atau apapun yang ingin Anda tulis, yang dipublikasikan di dalam sebuah website. Blog pada umumnya berbentuk rangkaian tulisan kronologis dengan tulisan terbaru berada pada bagian atas. Hal yang bisa dimengerti karena posisi teratas mudah untuk diakses pengunjung, dan mudah untuk diketahui pengunjung apabila terdapat tulisan yang baru di-update. Blog modern seperti yang dikenal pada saat ini merupakan pengembangan dari online diary yang dimulai dari tahun 1994. Seperti tercermin dari namanya, online diary adalah diary atau jurnal seseorang yang dipublikasikan melalui Internet. Pada online diary, orang-orang menuliskan aktivitas dan pengalaman mereka dari hari ke hari, dapat juga berupa komentar, puisi, atau pemikiran lain Karena bersifat online, maka online diary tentunya diperuntukkan agar orang lain dapat membacanya. Pembaca juga mampu berkontribusi di dalamnya dengan menuliskan tanggapan terhadap penulis online diary. Seiring dengan perkembangan Internet dan teknologi, online diary mulai berkembang dengan mengombinasikan unsur multimedia, yaitu text, video, dan gambar. Di lain pihak, website perusahaan maupun personal yang saat itu mulai marak, sering menampilkan menu News (atau What’s New) pada halaman utama yang berisi berita terbaru yang disusun berdasarkan tanggal terbaru. Unsur-unsur gabungan dari sebuah website pada umumnya dan online diary inilah yang kemudian melahirkan web blog atau blog. Karena itu, blog saat ini tidak hanya menampilkan content, tetapi juga diperkaya dengan fitur-fitur lain sebagaimana layaknya sebuah website. Fitur-fi tur tersebut antara lain adalah link ke blog/website lain, juga terdapat weblog search engine yang mengizinkan Anda menelusuri topik-topik yang berhubungan satu sama lain sesuai dengan minatnya. Pembuat blog kemudian dikenal dengan nama blogger, dan menjadi hal yang umum (dan hampir wajib) untuk para blogger membentuk suatu persahabatan di dunia maya, baik dengan saling memberikan link website ataupun terlibat dalam suatu komunitas blog. Pada tahun 2000 ke atas blog semakin berkembang pesat dengan munculnya blog-blog populer, antara lain:



1. AndrewSullivan.com

Andrew Sullivan adalah seorang pembicara, komentator, kolumnis politik yang memiliki analisis dan gaya yang khas. Hal tersebut membuat blog Andrew Sullivan sebagai salah satu blog yang paling banyak dibaca di Internet. Andrew Sullivan menyebut blognya dengan nama Daily Dish, dimulai pada akhir tahun 2000, dan dengan cepat menjadi blog politik yang sangat popular dengan panasnya berita-berita politik, dan terutama serangan teroris 11 September 2001 yang merontokkan Word Trade Center. Fakta juga mencatat bahwa blog politik merupakan kategori blog yang terhangat dan memiliki banyak pembaca, AndrewSullivan. com hanyalah salah satu contoh dari sekian banyak blog politik yang popular. Walaupun demikian, tidak berarti kategori blog lain tidak dapat mengumpulkan pembaca yang setia dalam jumlah yang fantastis.

2. Scary Duck

Scary Duck beralamatkan pada http://scaryduck.blogspot.com, tidak terpaku pada suatu kategori pembahasan seperti politik, olahraga, hiburan, atau yang lainnya, melainkan Scary Duck mencakup keseluruhannya. Gaya penulisan yang ringan tetapi dengan wawasan yang luas, ditambah dengan gambar yang jenaka membuat Scary Duck dinobatkan menjadi blog terbaik pada suatu kompetisi blog di Inggris pada tahun 2002. Scary Duck merupakan salah satu blog yang dapat Anda jadikan sebagai referensi yang baik untuk mengawali perjalanan Anda sebagai blogger!

3. Hardware Blog

Anda ingin mengulas khusus mengenai hardware di dalam blog Anda? Tidak masalah, Hardware Blog dengan alamat http:// www.hwblog.com merupakan contoh blog yang mengulas pernak-pernik hardware. Hardware memang merupakan salah satu topik yang tidak pernah habis dibahas. Dengan ditunjang penulisan yang menarik dan tentunya pengetahuan yang baik mengenai hardware itu sendiri, blog sejenis ini sangat mungkin mendapatkan fans pembaca dalam tempo yang relatif cepat.

Blog Perusahaan

Untuk mengumpulkan komunitas dan memberikan informasi yang luas, suatu perusahaan atau institusi juga dapat aktif membuat blog. Artinya, dunia bisnis ternyata juga mulai menilik blog sebagai sebuah sarana yang dapat mendukung kemajuan perusahaan. Contohnya dapat Anda lihat pada situs http://www.computerworld. com/blogs yang merupakan blog dari Computer World, sebuah perusahaan media teknologi terkemuka. Computer World membagi-bagi kategori blognya untuk mempermudah klasifi kasi, misalnya kategori Security yang membahas masalah keamanan, kategori Operating System yang membahas sistem operasi, dan masih banyak lagi. Bagaimana dengan di Indonesia? Tentunya tidak ketinggalan, contohnya Indosiar memiliki blog di http://blog.indosiar. com, sementara Tempo Interaktif memiliki blog di http://blog tempointeraktif.com. Melihat bahwa perusahaan yang berorientasi bisnis juga mulai nge-blog, mungkin menimbulkan pertanyaan apakah bisa mendapatkan uang melalui blog? Karena bisa jadi terpikir oleh Anda, sudah lelah-lelah menulis, masa tidak dapat uang? Jawabannya adalah Anda bisa mendapatkan penghasilan tambahan dari blog. Penghasilan tambahan dapat berupa iklan, donasi, atau bahkan menjual produk dalam blog Anda. Tujuannya tentu untuk mendapatkan penghasilan, karena itu Anda tidak perlu malu untuk meletakkannya jika memang ingin mendapatkan penghasilan tambahan. Akan tetapi, hal yang terutama kembali pada content blog itu sendiri, apakah Anda dapat menjaga kualitasnya sehingga proporsi dan tampilan blog Anda tetap terjaga dengan baik dan menarik bagi pengunjung (yang tentunya masuk ke dalam blog bukan untuk mencari iklan). Nuansa keakraban menjadi salah satu ciri blog, tetap mengutamakan content walaupun Anda juga mengharapkan penghasilan tambahan. Percayalah jika Anda mampu menampilkan tulisan menarik dan produktif, maka secara otomatis Anda akan lebih banyak dikenal dan mengenal orang, yang pada akhirnya akan menciptakan kesempatan-kesempatan yang lebih baik lagi.



Membuat Blog

Hal pertama untuk memulai blog adalah apa tujuan Anda. Apa yang ingin Anda tulis dan publikasikan? Misalkan saja, Anda seorang penggemar dan pengamat sepak bola yang berniat menuliskan review pertandingan-pertandingan favorit. Kemudian perlu dipikirkan perkembangannya, apakah Anda ingin membuat blog Anda khusus mengetengahkan sepak bola? Ataukah dapat berkembang luas, dan sepak bola hanyalah salah satu kategori yang terdapat dalam blog Anda? Hal seperti ini perlu Anda pertimbangkan masak-masak sebelum menentukan nama domain blog Anda, yang tentunya mencerminkan isi blog Tahap berikutnya adalah menentukan domain dan hosting untuk blog Anda. Anda dapat membuat sendiri blog Anda dari awal, mulai dari membeli domain dan menyewa hosting, desain web dan database, melakukan pengodean, hingga mempublikasikan web tersebut sebagaimana seorang webmaster bekerja. Pastinya tidak semua blogger harus memiliki latar belakang dan skill webmaster. Cara yang lebih mudah adalah dengan menggunakan jasa website blog/self-hosted blog (yang umumnya gratis), di mana Anda dapat menciptakan nama sub-domain, dan menggunakan template blog yang disediakan Seluruh fasilitas yang diperlukan oleh blogger tentunya sudah disediakan untuk mempermudah Anda meng-upload content dan mengatur layout. Kekurangannya adalah fitur yang dapat Anda gunakan terbatas pada fitur yang disediakan website tersebut. Salah satu contoh self-hosted blog yang dapat Anda gunakan adalah WordPress, yang menggunakan backend database MySQL dan ditulis dengan PHP, beralamatkan pada wordpress. com. Langkah-langkah registrasi dan penggunaan WordPress sangat mudah dipahami, pilihan theme yang tersedia juga cukup bervariasi, dilengkapi dengan fitur-fitur seperti multibahasa, statistik, spam protection, content management, dan sebagainya. Website-website popular lain yang menyediakan jasa serupa antara lain adalah Blogger (dulu bernama BlogSpot) dengan alamat blogger.com, WordLog (wordlog.com), bahkan website Friendster (friendster.com) juga telah menambahkan fasilitas blog bagi member-nya. Untuk blog yang lebih spesifi k, terdapat beberapa kategori blog berdasarkan medianya, antara lain:

1. Vlog

Merupakan singkatan dari Video Log, yang menggunakan media video sebagai content utama. Yang termasuk dalam kategori ini adalah YouTube (youtube.com).

2. Photolog

Sesuai dengan namanya, Photolog menggunakan media gambar sebagai content utama, tentunya cocok bagi Anda yang memiliki hobi atau memiliki pekerjaan pada bidang fotografi , ataupun sekadar hanya ingin menampilkan koleksi gambar dan foto. Jika Anda berada pada kategori ini, website yang menyediakan service-nya antara lain adalah Flickr yang beralamatkan pada flickr.com, FotoLog di photolog.com, dan masih banyak lagi.

3. Tumbleblog

Tumbleblog merupakan variasi berbagai media seperti gambar, link, video, dan sebagainya. Salah satu website yang menyediakan service ini adalah tumblr.com. Format tumbleblog singkat tanpa menyertakan komentar yang umumnya ditemukan pada blog biasa. Sangat cocok jika Anda ingin memublikasikan sesuatu dengan cepat dan to the point, misalnya sekadar berbagi kata inspirasi yang dapat menjadi memotivasi diri.



Tidak Hanya pada PC

Berkat teknologi yang berkembang pesat, blog juga mengalami migrasi device dari PC atau notebook menuju device lain seperti PDA dan ponsel, jenis blog ini dikenal dengan moblog, yang merupakan gabungan dari kata mobile dan blog. Tidak kalah dengan blog biasa, moblog juga mulai menyediakan dukungan multimedia seperti gambar dan video. Moblog berkembang dengan pesat diiringi dengan penggunaan fitur-fitur yang semakin digemari pada ponsel/PDA seperti kamera dan koneksi wireless, sehingga mempermudah melakukan melakukan publikasi gambar dengan cepat. Sebagaimana ungkapan lama mengatakan “satu gambar bermakna ribuan kata”, para moblogger dapat mengekspresikan yang mereka inginkan melalui gambar secara “on the fly”.

Bersiap Menjadi Blogger

Kemunculan blogger yang semakin meningkat setiap harinya membuat dunia Internet semakin penuh dengan informasi baru Seseorang mungkin tidak membutuhkan semua informasi tersebut, tetapi semua orang pasti membutuhkan sebuah informasi dan informasi yang dibutuhkan tersebut bisa jadi tersedia pada salah satu blog. Memutuskan menjadi blogger berarti memutuskan tampil di depan publik, apa yang Anda sampaikan dapat dikagumi, dipuji, atau sebaliknya dibantah, dikoreksi dan dicerca oleh orang lain dalam bentuk komentar (atau bahkan blog saingan!). Publikasi dan informasi yang Anda sampaikan pada publik, akan mengikuti proses penilaian yang menentukan apakah informasi Anda akan disukai atau tidak disukai (yang pasti, keduanya bisa membuat Anda popular). Beberapa anggapan menganggap blog sama dengan buku diary memang terdapat persamaan yang jelas, yaitu baik blog maupun diary umumnya merupakan ungkapan hati dan pikiran, tetapi ada perbedaan yang besar di antara keduanya. Diary menulis untuk diri sendiri, sementara dalam membuat blog, Anda menulis blog untuk dibaca oleh orang lain. Hal ini merupakan dasar yang penting dalam membuat blog. Dengan dasar ini, Anda tentu akan berusaha membuat tulisan yang objektif, beretika, bertanggung-jawab, dan tentunya bermanfaat bagi orang lain. Happy blogging!

_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_software

Indonesia-furniture.com

Manfaat bergabung dalam jaringan Indonesia-furniture.com :
Web-Hosting + Promosi khusus untuk Product Furniture dari Indonesia

Q: Apakah Indonesia-Furniture.com (selanjutnya disingkat I-F) itu ?
A: I-F adalah suatu portal yang dikhususkan untuk para pengusaha furniture dari Indonesia untuk membuat, menampilkan dan mempromosikan website mereka keluar negeri, sehingga akan mendapatkan buyers/importers dengan segment yang sesuai dengan yang dijual.


Q: Apakah yang mampu diberikan oleh I-F ?
A: I-F mampu menyediakan jasa dalam pengelolaan suatu website, meliputi :
- pendaftaran domain
- pembuatan design
- penyediaan web-hosting
- maintenance server
- konsultasi
- dan hal yang penting : promosi!


Q: Bagaimana cara bergabung kedalam jaringan I-F?
A: Cukup dengan menjadi member dengan biaya mulai Rp. 1.500.000,-/th


Q: Bagi yang sudah mempunyai website, apa yang diberikan oleh I-F ?
A: Indonesia-Furniture.com menawarkan paket khusus promosi dengan biaya yang sangat ringan namun dengan hasil yang sangat menjanjikan Fasilitas yang ditawarkan dalam Paket Khusus ini adalah :
1. Dipromosikannya banner website anda di www.indonesia-furniture.com
2. Website anda didaftarkan ke 100 search engine utama
3. Ditampilkan dibeberapa portal-portal unggulan lainnya
I-F mempunyai server dedicated sendiri yang terlletak di USA, jika member sudah mempunyai website sendiri, boleh memindahkan server mereka dengan gratis diserver kami. Kami akan memberikan fasilitas upgrade space dengan gratis.


Q: Bagi yang belum mempunyai website, apa yang diberikan oleh I-F ?
A: Bagi yang belum mempunyai website , akan mendapat gratis :
- Domain (.com) dng pilihan nama sendiri
- Hosting kapasitas 100mb, dng letak server di USA untuk jaminan kecepatan diakses dari seluruh dunia.
- Bantuan web-design standart
- konsultasi design
- bantuan maintenance website
- Dipromosikannya banner website anda di www.indonesia-furniture.com
- Website anda didaftarkan ke 100 search engine utama
- Ditampilkan dibeberapa portal-portal unggulan lainnya


Q: Kapan berdirinya I-F?
A: I-F sendiri sudah berdiri sejak th 1999. Portal ini mempunyai keunikan tersendiri bahwa bertujuan hanya untuk mempromosikan website para members yang bergabung didalamnya. Website ini setiap bulan dikunjungi puluhan ribu pengunjung, yang mayoritas adalah pengusaha furniture dari luar negeri yang mencari produk furniture dari Indonesia.
Portal ini didirikan berdasarkan pengalaman para pemilik website furniture, setelah mereka mempunyai website ternyata kunjungan dari luar negeri dan email-email tidak kunjung tiba, ini sebenarnya logis, sebab diseluruh dunia terdapat ribuan website furniture sejenis (dari china, malaysia,vietnam,dll) yang semuanya bertujuan sama : mencari importer dari USA, Eropa, Timur Tengah, Jepang dan Australia. Para pemilik website ini pada umumnya tidak memahami bahwa setelah mempunyai website maka ada satu hal lagi yang harus dilakukan mereka : mempromosikan website mereka agar dikenal dan dikunjungi, sebab website tanpa promosi adalah sia-sia. Bersaing dengan ribuan website sejenis tidaklah mudah bahkan bisa dianggap sulit sekali. Berdasarkan hal inilah Indonesia-Furniture.com didirikan khusus untuk mempromosikan website furniture Indonesia agar website mereka di kenal dan dikunjungi oleh importer furniture dari seluruh dunia.


Q: Apakah I-F akan menjamin promosi pasti berjalan efektif?
A: Sudah lebih dari 6 tahun Portal ini berdiri dan sampai saat ini sudah mempunyai member lebih dari 100 perusahaan furniture dari seluruh Indonesia. Ini membuktikan bahwa Portal ini memang mempunyai 'taring' untuk mempromosikan website furniture Indonesia. Jika anda bergerak di bidang furniture jangan lewatkan kesempatan ini, jika anda mempunyai kenalan yang bergerak dibidang furniture silahkan diinformasikan ke mereka

Q: Saya dengar I-F.com juga mempunyai portal furniture yang lain?
A: Ya, I-F.com mempunyai beberapa portal furniture lagi, yang mana anda sebagai member berkesempatan untuk dipromosikan juga disini.

Portal-portal ini diantaranya :
http://www.eastjava.com/furniture
http://www.indonesia-product.com
http://www.mid-java.com
http://www.bali-online.com
http://www.thefurnitures.com
Dan ada beberapa lagi yang masih dalam tahap pengembangan

Q: Apakah bisa melihat data asal pengunjung dari member yang sudah bergabung ?
A: Silahkan kunjungi link dibawah untuk melihat statistik pengunjung dari I-F & member yang sudah bergabung :

Indonesia-Furniture.com :
1. Statistik Pengunjung ke Indonesia-furniture.com (Asal Negara)
2. Statistik Pengunjung per harinya ke Indonesia-Furniture.com

Salah satu member Indonesia-Furniture.com :
3. Statistik asal negara pengunjung
4. Statistik dari portal mana saja asal pengunjung member i-f.com
5. Dari mana asal 20 pengunjung terakhir ke website member i-f.com


Q: Bagaimana cara menghubungi I-F?
A: Informasi lanjut hubungi :
www.Indonesia-Furniture.com
email : nurul@indonesia-furniture.com
contact : 081-331-030303

ರೆಕ್ರೆಅಶನ್ ಇನ್ Pulau Bidadari

Pulau Bidadari
Pagi itu panas matahari belum begitu terik, namun kesibukan di Dermaga 17 Pantai Marina Ancol sudah terlihat. Antrean orang yang akan naik kapal cepat ke berbagai pulau di gugusan Pulau Seribu sudah mulai bersiap-siap naik ke perahu masing-masing. Pak Nur ( 41 ), Kapten kapal cepat yang akan menuju P.Bidadari juga terlihat berdiri diatas kapal untuk melihat kesiapan kapal yang akan dikemudikannya.
Jika ingin pergi ke berbagai gugusan Kepulauan Seribu gampang saja, datang saja ke Pantai Marina Ancol. Di situ anda tinggal beli tiket kapal, kemudian memilih tujuan, menunggu sebentar dan berangkat. Salah satu service yang disediakan adalah berlayar menuju Pulau Bidadari, salah satu gugusan Kepulauan Seribu yang terdekat dengan Jakarta. Rute Marina – P.Bidadari tersedia tiap hari, dimana keberangkatan kapal jam sembilan pagi dan kepulangannya jam tiga sore.

Kalau hari libur atau Sabtu & Minggu kapal tetap berangkat jam sembilan pagi, namun jam kepulangan menjadi dua kali, jam dua dan jam empat sore. Harga tiket juga berbeda, hari biasa adalah Rp 160,000 ,- per orang sedangkan hari libur adalah Rp 200,000 / orang. Selain tiket pulang dan pergi, harga tiket tersebut termasuk welcome drink dan makan siang di restoran P.Bidadari.

Setelah menunggu beberapa saat di Dermaga 17 Pantai Marina Ancol, petugas kapal mempersilahkan penumpang untuk masuk. Sesaat kemudian kapal yang kami tumpangi berputar, maju pelan-pelan dan mulai membelah lautan. Makin lama kecepatan kapal makin betambah, hingga para penumpang yang berada di dalamnya terasa diayun-ayun dan digoyang-goyang. Walaupun begitu para penumang tetap berasa aman di dalamnya, karena kapalnya lumayan besar dan tertutup, sehingga cipratan air tidak masuk ke dalam. Ruangan kapal juga relatif bersih dan nyaman. Susunan tempat duduknya juga asyik, kursi busa dengan posisi tiga kursi samping kanan dan tiga kursi samping kiri yang dipisahkan oleh jalan di tengahnya. Tak begitu lama, kurang lebih hanya dua puluh menit di atas kapal, rimbunan dedaunan Pulau Bidadari sudah kelihatan, dan merapalah kapal yang kami tumpangi di dermaga kayu pulau tersebut.

Patung Sang Tanduk Tujuh Belas yang sedang mengangkat kakinya menyambut kedatangan para pengunjung. Bahkan sambutan tersebut disertai dengan bunyi puisi yang tertulis di bawah patung yang berbunyi sebagai berikut,”Singa Beraung dihutan-hutan, Hiu berteriak, Aku raja dilautan, Dan rajawali, Bebas terbang tinggi di awan – Disini Sang Tanduk Tujuh Belas, Akrab berbisik, Kepada para wisatawan, Saya hanyalah penjaga kepulauan – Cinta persahabatan, Cinta perdamaian, Cinta ketenangan, Dan cinta keindahan”. Merenung sejenak setelah membaca pusisi tersebut, welcome drink pun siap sedia diatas meja yang terletak di samping meja resepsionis. Di pintu masuk terdapat beberapa petugas yang sudah siap sedia melayani segala keperluan para pengunjung. Pemandu wisata juga tersedia bagi para pengunjung yang ingin penjelasan detail tentang P.Bidadari.

Karena ingin lebih bebas menikmati asrinya pulau, kami pun memutuskan untuk mengelilingi Pulau Bidadari tanpa menggunakan pemandu. Toh sudah tersedia juga brosur yang lumayan lengkap yang berisi tentang pulau ini. Mengitari pulau berlawanan arah dengan jarum jam, kami melintasi bungalow-bungalow yang tidak begitu besar, namun terlihat teduh dan asri. Karena hampir di setiap sudut daratan pulau ini tumbuh pohon Keben dan beberapa pohon lain yang terlihat sangat subur. Terus berjalan ke dalam kita akan menemukan Benteng yng sudah rusak, namun masih terlihat sisa-sisa keperkasaannya. Bangunan yang berfungsi sebagai menara pengawas dan benteng di Pulau Bidadari ini berbentuk bundar dengan garis tengah 23 meter da tebal dinding 2,50 meter. Pada dinding ini terdapat deretan jendela-jendela besar dan kecil. Pada bagian dalam bangunan ini terdapat tujuh ruangan lantai dasar yang dipisah-pisahkan dengan skat tembok bata.

Salah satu ruangan yag tertutup berfungsi sebagai tempat penyimpanan amunisi. Pada bagian tengahnya terdapat sebuah dinding lingkaran lagi yang berfungsi sebagai tempat penyimpanan air bersih untuk keperluan minum dan memasak bagi para tentara yang sedang berjaga. Sebelum dilakukan penggalian arkeologi, bangunan menara pengawas di Pulau Bidadari ini tidak terlihat wujudnya sebab seluruh permukaan bangunan tertimbun oleh puing-puing dan ditumbuhi oleh pohon-pohon besar serta ilalang. Namu setelah dilakukan penelitian dan penggalian oleh Dinas Museum dan Sejarah DKI Jakarta, akhirnya dapat diperlihatkan wujud dari sisa-sisa bangunan menara tersebut. Menara pengawas ini bertingkat dua, hal ini dibuktikan dengan adanya lubang-lubang penyangga balok lantai. Ruangan-ruangan pada lantai dua ada tujuh buah. Kemungkinan ruangan dilantai dua ini berfungsi sebagai ruangan tidur sekaligus tempat pengintaian.

Bentuk bangunan menara pengawas ini di Eropa lebih dikenal dengan sebutan Menara Martello. Yang pertama kali diperkenalkan oleh Perancis, atau tepatnya d pulau Corsica pada abad 18. Ketika terjadi pemberontakan di pulau tersebut pada tahun 1794, mereka meminta bantuan Inggris untuk membantu menyerang. Namun untuk menaklukan Corsica, Inggris kewalahan merebut benteng menara di Martello Point yang menjaga pintu masuk teluk Fiorenzo. Benteng itu cukup ampuh dalam pertahanan, sehingga sekembalinya dari perang, Inggris mendirikan bangunan yang sama di negaranya. Kemudian bangunan ini tidak saja ditiru oleh Inggris melainkan juga Belanda. Tak heran jika Belanda mendirikan pula menara Martello di negeri jajahan seperti Indonesia sebagai bagian dari sistim pertahanannya. Dan salah satunya didirikan di Pulau Bidadari yang bekasnya masih bisa kita lihat sampai sekarang. Disamping itu ada benteng yang setipe dengan Martello yang terletak disebelah utara Pulau Bidadari. Bisa ditempuh dengan menggunakan perahu kurang lebih sepuluh menit.

Di sebelah utara benteng merupakan sisi pantai utara sebagai batas Pulau Bidadari bagian utara. Pantainya terlihat lebih bersih dan lebih bening dibanding dengan pantai sisi selatan. Hal ini dikarenakan pantai utara tidak berhadapan langsung teluk Jakarta yang sudah banyak tercemar. Beberapa tempat duduk kecil yang menghadap pantai tersedia disisi pantai. Duduk-duduk dikursi tersebut sambil melihat pemandangan laut biru, diterpa angin laut yang sepoi-sepoi merupakan hal yang sangat menyenangkan. Setelah puas mengelilingi pulau ini, senang, segar, capai dan rasa lapar bercampur jadi satu. Maka dari itu bersiaplah untuk menikmati hidangan makanan yang disediakan oleh restaurant dengan menukarkan voucher yang kita dapatkan ketika membeli tiket kapal. Menu yang tidak mewah, namun juga tidak bisa dikatakan sederhana, nasi dan lauk pauk lengkap serta hidangan penutup betul-betul menjadi pengobat rasa lapar yang ada.

Karena restoran yang langsung berhadapan dengan pantai, asyik sekali makan sambil menatap laut, mendengar ombak yang mendayu-dayu. Tak terasa waktu berlalu begitu cepat ketika berada di pulau ini, kapal penjemput sudah siap di dermaga, satu per satu penumpang naik dan kami kembali ke dermaga 17.

സെമേര് mountain

Mt. Semeru

Semeru also Gunung Semeru - is the tallest mountain on the island of Java and one of its most active volcanoes. Known also as Mahameru (Great Mountain), it is very steep and rises abruptly above the coastal plains of eastern Java. Semeru lies at the south end of the Tengger Volcanic Complex.

Semeru's eruptive history is extensive. Since 1818, at least 55 eruptions have been recorded (10 of which resulted in fatalities) consisting of both lava flows and pyroclastic flows. Moderate explosive eruptions (VEI 2-3) have also been recorded with some regularity.

Semeru has been in a state of near-constant eruption from 1967 to the present. At times, small eruptions happen every 10 minutes or so.

Semeru is regularly climbed by tourists, usually starting from the village of Rano Pani to the north, but though non-technical it can be dangerous. Soe Hok Gie, an Indonesian political activist of the 1960s died in 1969 from inhaling poisonous gas while hiking on Mount Semeru.

Semeru is named from Sumeru, the central world-mountain in Buddhist cosmology. In legend it was transplanted from India; the tale is recorded in the 16th-century East Javanese work Tantu Panggelaran. It was originally placed in the western part of the island, but that caused the island to tip, so it was moved eastward. On that journey, parts kept coming off the lower rim, forming the mountains Lawu, Wilis, Kelud, Kawi, Arjuno and Welirang. The damage thus caused to the foot of the mountain caused it to shake, and the top came off and created Penanggungan as well.

Pembangunan Ekowisata di Kalimantan Timur

Pelestarian dan kelestarian alam Indonesia adalah merupakan aset dan modal dasar bagi pembangunan bangsa. Kini makin disadari bahwa upaya pelestarian alam bukanlah hanya demi kelestarian alam itu sendiri, namun hakekatnya adalah untuk kelangsungan pembangunan bangsa dan kesejahteraan manusia. Manusia adalah bagian integral dari ekosistem alam itu sendiri.

Selama ini kawasan konservasi sebagai tabungan kekayaan alam yang dimiliki oleh rakyat Indonesia belumlah termanfaatkan secara maksimal bagi kesejahteraan secara langsung bagi masyarakat di sekitarnya dan bagi keanekaragaman hayati yang ada didalamnya. Kawasan konservasi lebih sering dianggap sebagai sebuah beban dalam upaya pelestariaannya dan juga kawasan konservasi sering dianggap tidak memberikan manfaat langsung bagi masyarakat. Kawasan konservasi yang ada di Indonesia, khususnya di Kalimantan Timur belumlah memberikan manfaat langsung bagi masyarakat sehingga menyebabkan masyarakat belum merasa memiliki kawasan tersebut dan tidak ikut bertanggung jawab bagi kerusakan kawasan tersebut.

Dewasa ini banyak negara di dunia yang menganggap pariwisata sebagai satu diantara aspek terpenting dan integral dari strategi pengembangan negara. Banyak literatur kepariwisataan yang memberikan ulasan bahwa sektor pariwisata memberikan keuntungan ekonomi terhadap negara bersangkutan. Keuntungan-keuntungan ini biasanya diperoleh dari pendapatan nilai tukar mata uang asing, pendapatan pemerintah, stimulasi pengembangan regional, dan penciptaan tenaga kerja serta peningkatkan pendapatannya.

Secara umum, pariwisata telah menjadi salah satu industri yang terpenting di dunia. Menurut Dewan Perjalanan dan Pariwisata Dunia (World Travel and Tourism Council - WTTC), saat ini pariwisata merupakan industri terbesar di dunia dengan menghasilkan pendapatan dunia lebih dari US$3,5 triliun pada tahun 1993 atau 6% dari pendapatan kotor dunia. Pariwisata merupakan industri yang lebih besar daripada industri kendaraan, baja, elektronik maupun pertanian. Industri pariwisata mempekerjakan 127 juta pekerja (satu dalam 15 pekerja di dunia). Secara keseluruhan, industri pariwisata diharapkan meningkat dua kali lipat pada tahun 2005 (WTTC, 1992).

Indonesia memiliki kekayaan sumberdaya alam dengan keanekaragaman yang tinggi. Sumberdaya alam yang berada di kawasan hutan memiliki potensi yang dapat dimanfaatkan dan dikembangkan untuk kepentingan pariwisata. Walaupun demikian, sumberdaya alam tersebut belum sepenuhnya digarap, dikembangkan dan dimanfaatkan menjadi obyek wisata alam.

Dibandingkan dengan pariwisata tradisional, pariwisata alam membutuhkan investasi yang relatif lebih besar untuk pembangunan sarana dan prasarananya. Untuk itu diperlukan evaluasi yang teliti terhadap kegiatan pariwisata alam tersebut. Banyak pendapat yang menyatakan bahwa pariwisata alam yang berbentuk ekowisata (ecotourism) belum berhasil berperan sebagai alat konservasi alam maupun untuk mengembangkan perekonomian. Satu diantara penyebabnya adalah masih sulitnya memperoleh dan menyediakan dana pengembangan kegiatannya. Kalaupun ada keuntungan yang diperoleh dari penyelenggaraan pariwisata jenis tersebut, namun masih relatif kecil jumlah yang dialokasikan untuk mendukung usaha konservasi dan pengembangan ekonomi (Suwantoro, 1997).

Untuk menciptakan iklim usaha dan peluang ekonomi secara profesional melalui kegiatam wisata alam, pemerintah telah mengeluarkan berbagai kebijakan. Departemen Kehutanan dan Perkebunan (dh. Departemen Kehutanan) telah mengantisipasi sejak tahun 1989, yaitu dengan diterbitkannya SK Menteri Kehutanan No. 68/Kpts-II/1989 tentang Pengusahaan Hutan Wisata, Taman nasional, Taman Hutan Raya dan Taman Wisata Laut. Ketentuan mengenai pengusahaan pariwisata alam kemudian diperkuat dengan peraturan perundangan yang lebih tinggi, yaitu Undang-Undang No.5 Tahun 1990 tentang Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam dan Ekosistemnya serta Peraturan Pemerintah No. 18 Tahun 1994 tentang Pengusahaan Pariwisata Alam di Zona Pemanfaatan Taman Nasional, Taman Hutan Raya dan Taman Wisata Alam. Demikian pula dalam pengembangan Wisata Buru, telah diterbitkan Peraturan Pemerintah No. 13 Tahun 1994 tentang Perburuan.

Kegiatan wisata alam yang dapat dilakukan dan dikembangkan di kawasan tersebut di atas pada prinsipnya dapat digolongkan dalam 2 (dua) tipe yaitu, wisata darat yang meliputi: lintas alam, mendaki gunung, menelusuri gua, berburu, fotografi, rekreasi pantai, berkemah, penelitian dan pendidikan; dan wisata bahari yang meliputi: berenang, menyelam dan snorkling, berlayar, berselancar, fotografi, memancing, rekreasi pantai, penelitian dan pendidikan.

Pengembangan pariwisata, termasuk di dalamnya wisata alam dapat memberikan manfaat dan keuntungan, yaitu : meningkatkan kesadaran masyarakat untuk berperan secara aktif dalam pelestarian lingkungan; pertukaran latar belakang budaya yang berbeda; membuka kesempatan kerja dan berusaha; meningkatakan pendapatan negara.

Kalimantan Timur merupakan salah satu provinsi yang kaya akan potensi alam dengan panorama yang indah dan keunikan serta kekhasannya. Apabila potensi ini mampu dikembangkan secara optimal maka Kalimantan Timur dapat menjadi satu diantara daerah tujuan wisata yang menarik banyak wisatawan. Dari beberapa kawasan konservasi yang ada di Kalimantan Timur, pengembangan lebih lanjut untuk dapat memberikan kontribusi pemasukan bagi daerah belumlah banyak dikembangkan. Saat ini, kawasan konservasi tersebut hanyalah dijadikan sebagai areal penelitian.

Beberapa kawasan yang telah dikembangkan untuk menjadi daerah tujuan wisata diantaranya adalah Taman Nasional Kutai, Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang, Taman Anggrek Kresik Luwai, Gua Mangku Langit dan lain sebagainya yang kesemuanya mangandalkan keunikan dan keindahan alam Kalimantan Timur untuk menarik wisatawan.

Namun demikian daerah tujuan wisata tersebut belum mampu menarik wisatawan dalam jumlah besar dan menjadi kawasan konservasi yang ideal, hal ini disebabkan oleh banyak faktor. Beberapa faktor utama yang menjadi kendala adalah rendahnya aksesibilitas, manajemen yang kurang profesional dan keamanan kawasan dari tekanan penduduk disekitar kawasan dan faktor alam.

Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang memiliki panorama alam yang menakjubkan terbentur pada aksesibilitas yang rendah. Taman Anggrek Kresik luwai memiliki berbagai macam koleksi angrek dan diantaranya termasuk anggrek yang langka dan khas kalimantan, akan tetapi tidak memiliki manajemen profesional. Taman Nasional Kutai kaya akan jenis flora dan fauna tetapi selalau terancam kelestariannya karena perambahan penduduk.

Namun untuk mengembangkan obyek-obyek wisata dengan masing-masing daya tarik/pesona, diperlukan skala prioritas yang didasarkan pada pertimbangan-pertimbangan: pernah dikunjungi wisatawan; relatif mudah dijangkau karena sudah ada hubungan udara, darat, laut dan sungai; memiliki faktor penunjang lainnya; pemerintah dan masyarakat setempat antusias mendukung pengembangan obyek wisata tersebut; keamanan dan ketertiban terjamin dengan baik.

Dengan begitu banyaknya potensi yang dimiliki Kalimantan Timur dan begitu besarnya peluang yang terbuka di dalam pengembangan ekowisata, maka perlu dilakukan penggalian yang lebih mendalam di dalam pengembangan ekowisata, khususnya di dalam pengembangan kawasan konservasi menjadi kawasan wisata di Kalimantan Timur.

Dari segi pendanaan, sebagai modal awal dalam pengembangan ekowisata, dengan telah mulai berlakunya otonomi daerah, maka tidak akan sukar bagi daerah Kalimantan Timur untuk memperoleh pendanaan tersebut. Yang diperlukan saat ini hanyalah mencoba menyatukan persepsi dan pandangan dari berbagai komponen di Kalimantan Timur dalam mengembangkan kawasan konservasi sebagai ekowisata demi kelestarian kawasan itu sendiri dan memberikan kesejahteraan bagi masyarakat sekitar kawasan.

Kamar pandiran: urai
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Google launching

Awal hari ini, Google launching sebuah affiliasi iklan jaringan (affiliate ad network). Google juga melanjutkan percobaan dengan suatu program iklan pay-per-action (masih versi Beta). http://www.gsn-soeki.com/wouw/
Google Launches Affiliate Advertising Network, Courtesy of DoubleClick
by: Erick Schonfeld (June 30, 2008; 2:09 PM
Earlier today, Google launched an affiliate ad network. Or, rather, it rebranded Performics, the affiliate ad network that came along with its purchase of DoubleClick, as the "Google Affiliate Network." As with other affiliate networks such as Amazon's, participating Website publishers get paid a fee for each referral that results in a sale. Existing advertisers include Bank of America, Barnes & Noble, Citi, Target, and Verizon.
The service isn't yet integrated into Google AdSense (publishers and advertisers still have to set up separate accounts), but that would be a logical next step. An integration with AdSense could add a contextual element to the affiliate ads placed through the network. The more relevant Google can make those affiliate links, the more that consumers will actually click through and buy (in theory).
Google also continues to experiment with a pay-per-action advertising program, which is still in beta. At some point, it might make sense to consolidate that effort into the Google Affiliate Network as well.

Posted: 01 July 2008 11:12 66 Reads - Print


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Energy Medicine Healing

Energy Medicine Healing



The Definition of Energy Medicine, Energy Healing & Vibrational Medicine:
By Sharon Flaminio
Energy Medicine, Energy Healing and Vibrational Medicine work focuses on supporting an individual with his or her own healing process. In addition, Vibrational Medicine refers to a viewpoint of health and illness that takes into account all of the many forms and frequencies of vibrating energy that are a natural and normal part of the human energy system. All living things are composed of vibrating matter. Simply because they are not static the biochemical molecules that make up the physical body are a form of vibrating energy.

It has been demonstrated that various illnesses vibrate at different frequencies. The cells in our bodies create their own bioelectric fields which can be measured by different tests such as EKG's, EEG's, EMG's, etc. For example, an EKG (which is a test that measures electrical energy coming from the heart) can detect an abnormality in a person's bioelectric field.

In Newtonian physics the human body is viewed as a machine. Unfortunately, much of how Western Medicine looks at treating disease and dysfunction within the human body still follows the Newtonian principles. However, when we look at the human body through the principles of Quantum Physics, we can see the human body as having an energy signature that can become disrupted. It is evident that our cells communicate with each other and respond to their environment. An example of this is when cancer cells are described as "smart." Cancer cells move or scatter in what seems to be a survival method when a person is given radiation or chemotherapy. Sometimes a rise in one's cancer markers are seen during these types of treatments, indicating increased cancer cell activity. In exploring this phenomenon, Quantum Physics addresses questions such as why disease occurs in the body, and why do certain people become sick and others don't when they are exposed to the same conditions.

Applying physics to the world of medicine, Energy Medicine asserts that living beings' reactions to life are not only recorded in the biochemical patterns of memory within the brain, but are also evident in the seven life-energy centers known as Chakras. Because each major chakra is centrally located within various segments of the body, they are each directly linked to a particular region of the body and to a particular hormone-producing endocrine gland, organ system and major ganglion along the spinal cord. Chakras are beneficial to our bodily functions, as they help to nourish our cells and organs. (Our chakra awareness guide illustrates this nicely.)

The energetic balance of an individual's cells can be disrupted by illness, emotional or physical trauma, and by drug therapy or usage. Energy Medicine holds the belief that when disrupted, the chakra system becomes unbalanced, making it difficult for the body to heal itself. The areas where the energy flow is constricted are where the pre-disposition to illness in the body will develop. An example of this would be a person who has difficulty with the ability to love and to let in love. If left untreated, the individual may develop blockages in the fourth chakra: the area around the heart.

Energy balancing work is used to correct imbalances, to restore the natural flow of energy, and to support the body's natural ability to heal. The W.I.S.E.* Energy Medicine healing method, which we use at Awakenings Natural Healing, uses emotional processing, hands-on healing and physical movement to induce healing and to help move stored or blocked energy. Increasing people's awareness about healthy breathing helps to move waste products from the body, increases the body's oxygenation and helps the individual to relax and decrease stress. This in turn places the individual in a less acid state and the body becomes more balanced, allowing the body to focus healing on the areas that require repair.

Using the W.I.S.E. method of Energy Healing helps the patient to achieve a state of deep relaxation, which can lead to deep healing on both the emotional and physical levels.

Traditional western medicine is only just beginning to recognize the power of the body's God-given potential to heal. Energy work and other healing modalities that support one's ability to tap into the body's healing potential can be very powerful. Similarly, psychoneuroimmunology is a field of research that studies the link between mind, body and the immune system, and supports the importance of energy balancing work. (For more details check out Emmett Miller's book entitled Deep Healing.)

It is exciting to be part of this paradigm shift in patient care and I look forward to seeing it grow.

Article written by Sharon Flaminio with assistance from Dorothy Martin-Neville and Richard Gerber's Book on Vibrational Medicine. This work is copyrighted and can not be reproduced without the author's permission.

*The W.I.S.E. (Wholistic, Integrated, Spiritual, Energy) Method was created by Dorothy Martin-Neville, LMFT, LPC, PhD, the founder of the Institute of Healing Arts and Sciences (IHAS) in Hartford, CT. If you are interested in learning more about the IHAS healing programs please click the link below:

http://instituteofhealing.com/

Prices

Prices - Island Retreat
Accomodation:
Oceanfront Cottages: 25 $ US per person/day*
Garden Cottages : 15 $US per person/day*
Honey moon cottage: 28 $US per person/day, available for honeymooners and families (max. 4 Pers. only * full board, except beverages
back
Payment regulations & bank account:
Diving:
one dive 25 US$ per person

Pulau Batudaka - Island Tour:
3 days, 2 nights, several stops at villages, fishermen villages, sea gipsy houses,
food, drinks, simple accomodation,
1 night at beach bungalow, community room,
1 night at the village, tour to waterfall. Available on request only, minimum parti-cipation 4 persons
US$ 85 per person

Una Una Vulcano Tour:
Boat tour to the Una Una vulcano, stay overnight on board, guided tour, with full board. Available on request only, minimum participation 3 persons.
300.000 Rp. per person

Snorkelling:
equipment: mask, snorkel, fins (rental)
25.000 Rp. per person/day
1 day trip to Una Una - active volcano- atolls- best for snorkelling and diving, Picnic included
400.000 Rp. per person
minimum 4 persons present

1 day trip with lunch at white sand beach and snorkelling at 2 snorkelling sites
100.000 Rp. per person
minimum 4 persons present

Short snorkell trip to Taupan:
3 hours.,
40.000 Rp. per person
minimum 2 persons present

Island Tour 1
Makasar - Toraja - Island Retreat
15 days trip, available on request only, about 750 US$ per person for standard tour package, advanced payments are required!
pdf-download: price list 2004

Fishing:
outrigger by your own (free)
Join local fishermen fishing at night (40.000 Rp.).

An Introduction to Modern Economic Botany

An Introduction to Modern Economic Botany
The existence of the human race has depended on plants to meet three necessities, mainly food, cloth and dwelling. In recent times, there exist a lot of vegetables which are not utilized for non-interest or poor knowledge about their possible uses. The main objective of this book on ‘An Introduction to Modern Economic Botany’ is to provide knowledge on the utility of plant species, cultivated or in the wild stage, which are closely related with different aspects such as Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Plant Morphology and Anatomy, Plant Morphology and Anatomy, Plant Physiology, Evolution, Ecology, Food Science, Toxicology, Biotic resources, Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry, Agronomy and Horticulture. Basically this book is based on the knowledge of principal food, industrial and textile products, food products, as well as a vista of the geographic distribution and the morphology of some vegetable species, Apart from Plants of economic importance, the book also pretends to include some useful plants found in mexico, which are considered most important globally on the basis of their derived products. An extensive review of literature has been made on the utilization of these resources, including the results of thesis submitted in the Biology and Agronomy Faculties of the ‘La Universodad Autonoma de Nuevo, Leon’ and the ‘Department of chemistry and Biology, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla’. Mexico. Different themes have been described clearly and easily understandable form the readers. The second part of this book discusses the results of investigation and techniques of the investigation and techniques of the investigation on plants of economic importance. Apart from these aspects, the book mentioned the different forms of the utilization of resources and the necessities of investigation required to achieve the preservation and a better utilization of the same. This book can serve as a text of economic importance for the students at graduation level in the areas of Biology and Food Science. This book can also be used as a reference book by the students of Agricultural Botany or Agriculture.

the botany

The science or study of plants.
A book or scholarly work on this subject.
The plant life of a particular area: the botany of the Ohio River valley.
3. The characteristic features and biology of a particular kind of plant or plant group.
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That branch of biological science which embraces the study of plants and plant life. Botanical studies may range from microscopic observations of the smallest and obscurest plants to the study of the trees of the forest. One botanist may be interested mainly in the relationships among plants and in their geographic distribution, whereas another may be primarily concerned with structure or with the study of the life processes taking place in plants.

Botany may be divided by subject matter into several specialties, such as plant anatomy, plant chemistry, plant cytology, plant ecology (including autecology and synecology), plant embryology, plant genetics, plant morphology, plant physiology, plant taxonomy, ethnobotany, and paleobotany. It may also be divided according to the group of plants being studied; for example, agostology, the study of grasses; algology (phycology), the study of algae; bryology, the study of mosses; mycology, the study of fungi; and pteridology, the study of ferns. Bacteriology and virology are also parts of botany in a broad sense. Furthermore, a number of agricultural subjects have botany as their foundation. Among these are agronomy, floriculture, forestry, horticulture, landscape architecture, and plant breeding. See also Agriculture; Agronomy; Bacteriology; Cell biology; Ecology; Floriculture; Genetics; Landscape architecture; Paleobotany; Plant anatomy; Plant growth; Plant morphogenesis; Plant pathology; Plant physiology; Plant taxonomy.
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Antonyms: botany

n

Definition: plant study
Antonyms: zoology
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: botany

Branch of biology that deals with plants, including the study of the structure, properties, and biochemical processes of all forms of plant life, as well as plant classification, plant diseases, and the interactions of plants with their physical environment. The science of botany traces back to the ancient Greco-Roman world but received its modern impetus in Europe in the 16th century, mainly through the work of physicians and herbalists, who began to observe plants seriously to identify those useful in medicine. Today the principal branches of botanical study are morphology, physiology, ecology, and systematics (the identification and ranking of all plants). Subdisciplines include bryology (the study of mosses and liverworts), pteridology (the study of ferns and their relatives), paleobotany (the study of fossil plants), and palynology (the study of modern and fossil pollen and spores). See also forestry, horticulture.

For more information on botany, visit Britannica.com.
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US History Encyclopedia: Botany

The history of botany in America has several themes: the identification and study of new species discovered in the New World; the transformation of the field away from classification based on morphology, or shape, and toward interest in physiology and, later, genetics; the concomitant specialization and professionalization of botany, a subject that was originally relatively open to amateur practitioners, including women; and the development of American botanical research to rival the initially dominant European centers in England, France, and Germany. The European Renaissance had seen a revival of interest in botany and in ancient botanical works that was aided by the invention of the printing press in 1453, which allowed for a uniformity of plant depictions that hand-drawn manuscripts could not ensure.

Discoveries in the New World

The exploration of the New World, beginning with Columbus's voyage of 1492, was marked by the discovery of new flora and fauna, enthusiastically documented and described by travelers. It was not uncommon for those who wrote about the Americas to describe the plants and animals they had seen in terms of familiar European species, and, indeed, sometimes to mistakenly identify American species as being the same as European species. However, since plants do not move—unlike animals that might offer colonial settlers and travelers only a glimpse before disappearing—many American plants were quickly identified to be distinct from similar species in the Old World. Although Native Americans had developed their own classifications of North American flora, and although Native Americans were often a source of knowledge for colonists learning about the uses of new plants, Europeans tended to impose their own classifications onto the plants of the New World.

At the time, the discovery of new species posed a theological problem for European Christians, as the description of Noah's Ark insisted that Noah had gathered every kind of plant, while the New World contained many plants not part of the European and Asian ecosystems. Questions quickly arose as to whether there had once been a land bridge between the Americas and Eurasia and, even prior to Darwin, whether American plant species were modified variations on European species.

Moreover, some plants from the Americas became quite profitable crops for Europeans, most notably tobacco and chocolate, and many Europeans came over to explore and study the new plants. The first notable publication on the flora of the Americas was by Nicolás Monardes, who never traveled to the New World but wrote on its plants in his 1574 Historia Medicinal, which was translated into English by John Frampton as Joyfull Newes out of the Newe Founde Worlde (1577). The work was primarily concerned with the medicinal benefits of the plants and herbs in the Americas, and, indeed, many of the practitioners of botany in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and even into the nineteenth centuries were also trained in medicine and were interested in the possible new cures available in undocumented American plants.

However, amateurs also made important contributions to the study of American botanicals, examining the plants in local areas, presenting their findings at botanical societies, swapping samples with other botanists and sending plants back to Europe, and cultivating herbaria and arboreta. From colonial times until the mid-nineteenth century, the work of amateurs in finding, studying, and documenting new species was important to the study of botany as a whole. A primary example is Jane Colden (1724–1766), the daughter of the botanist Cadwallader Colden. Tutored only by her father, Jane Colden studied and drew the plants of New York, classifying hundreds of plants, including the gardenia, which she discovered.

Jane Colden was especially renowned for understanding and using the Linnaean classification scheme. Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), a Swedish doctor and botanist, developed his hierarchy throughout his life, his most notable publications including the Systema Naturae (1735), GeneraPlantarum (1737), and Species Plantarum (1753). The Linnaean system, which has since been greatly revised, divided animals and plants into kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, and species, all written in Latin. Each species was given a two-part (binomial) name of genus and species.

Classification

Linnaeus's classification system greatly influenced eighteenth-century botany in America. Some of his students came over to categorize the species of the New World, most significantly Pehr Kalm, who traveled through the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic colonies, and Canada, bringing back samples. Meanwhile, colonial settlers like John Bartram (1699–1777), Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), Humphry Marshall (1722–1801), and others worked to incorporate the local flora into the work of Linnaeus, which provided a new sense of order for those working on studying the plants and animals of the overwhelmingly diverse and novel New World.

But although the Linnaean system was helpful, it could not survive the strain of the thousands of new discoveries in the Americas and Asia. Plant classifications based on reproduction resulted in categories that contained obviously widely diverging plants. In particular, Linnaeus was challenged by French botanists who emphasized grouping plants by shape (morphology). Antoine Laurent de Jussieu's (1748–1836) 1789 Genera Plantarum prompted the reorganizing of classification by appearance and added levels to the taxonomy.

The Jussieu modifications quickly, but not uncontroversially, became added to botanical literature, although the Linnaean system continued to be used in many prominent American publications through the early nineteenth century. Meanwhile, French botanists made other contributions to the study of North American plants. André Michaux (1746–1802) and his son, François André (1770–1855), traveled through much of eastern North America, from Canada to the Bahamas, observing and collecting. The end result of their massive researches was the 1803 Flora Boreali-Americana, the first large-scale compilation of North American plants. The work of the Michaux drew, not uncritically, on the reforms of Jussieu.

Nineteenth-Century American Botanists

The Michaux volumes encouraged revisions, the first coming in 1814 with the Flora Americae Septentrionalis of Frederick Pursh (1774–1820), which incorporated findings from the Lewis and Clark Expedition and thus contained information about western America. Pursh's contemporary, Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859), was born and died in England, but his interest, education, and work in botany were conducted primarily in America, where he explored the south and west, collecting and publishing his findings. Although he is known for his extensive discoveries, Nuttall also wrote the 1818 Genera of the North American Plants and 1827 Introduction to Systematic and Physiological Botany. His work is symbolic of a turn from European-dominated study of North American plants toward American specialists in native species. Although Americans had always played important roles in the discovery, cataloging, and study of local plants, the early and mid-nineteenth century saw the burgeoning of work by American botanists, both amateur and professional. Meanwhile, the American government sponsored expeditions to find and collect plant species in the less studied areas of the south and west of America.

Among the American botanists of the early nineteenth century, the most famous are Jacob Bigelow (1786–1879), Amos Eaton (1776–1842), John Torrey (1796–1873), and Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859). Bigelow, who was trained as a doctor, was primarily interested in the medicinal uses of plants, but he also surveyed the flora of Boston for his Florula Bostoniensis (1814). Additionally, he did work in physiology, which was already a topic of considerable interest in the first decades of the century and would come to dominate morphology in botanical concerns by the end of the nineteenth century.

Amos Eaton gained his reputation primarily through his Manual of Botany (first published in 1817, but revised and enlarged through many editions), which became the basic botanical teaching text of the first half of the nineteenth century. Eaton, who also worked in geology and chemistry, encouraged the participation of women in science, although indeed women were already quite well represented in botany, which he noted. In part this botanical activity by women was due to the fact that contemporary botany required little laboratory equipment: discoveries could be made by anyone who was diligent and well read in botany, and so graduate degrees or access to laboratories—both largely denied at the time to women—were unnecessary to botanical work. However, although Eaton emphasized field work, the most accessible kind of botanical study, he was also part of a trend toward including laboratory experiments.

Eaton's teaching and text were very influential, perhaps most importantly in botany upon John Torrey, whom Eaton met while serving a prison sentence for forgery—a charge he denied. Torrey was the son of a man who worked for the State Prison of New York, and Eaton gave the young Torrey lessons in a variety of scientific subjects, including botany. While Torrey went on to have a career that included work in medicine, geology, mineralogy, and chemistry, he is primarily remembered for his botanical work, cataloging New York flora, collaborating with Asa Gray, creating a renowned herbarium, promoting government-financed expeditions, utilizing—albeit inconsistently—the classification work of John Lindley, and serving as the first president of the Torrey Botanical Society, a group of prominent amateur and professional botanists in New York. The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Society, which began publication in 1870, is the oldest American botanical journal.

Although Bigelow, Eaton, Torrey, Nuttall, and others did much to encourage and expand knowledge of native plants, it is Asa Gray (1810–1888) who takes center stage in the history of American botany in the nineteenth century. Gray published A Flora of North America (1838–1843) with Torrey, which drew on the Lindley classification system, which was a development from Jussieu's "natural system." Gray's textbooks replaced those of Eaton, and the botanical research center he set up at Harvard cultivated many of the next generation of botanists and encouraged work in anatomy, cellular structure, and physiology, realms that were dominated by German botanists. Interested in East Asian flora as well as that of North America, Gray quickly supported Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory as expounded in the 1859 Origin of Species because he had noticed regional variation himself. This drew him into conflict with another Harvard professor, the zoologist Louis Agassiz, who was a prominent anti-Darwinian. However, evolution soon became a guiding principle in botanical study.

Theoretical Research

The twentieth century saw the rise of American research devoted to the theoretical aspects of botany, areas in which America had typically lagged behind Europe, as American botanists became more involved in experiments, physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, and less involved in the discovery of new species. While Darwin could not provide an explanation for the origins of variation and the inheritance of characteristics, Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), a Moravian monk, offered hereditary principles based on experiments with pea plants in his Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden (Experiments in plant hybridization; 1865, 1869). Although Mendel's research went unacknowledged until 1900, when rediscovered it was profoundly influential in turning the research edge of botany, which was already moving from morphology to physiology, toward genetics as well. In addition, during the first half of the twentieth century, ecological research, which tied together the plants and animals of a habitat, began to thrive, as evidenced by the work of Henry Chandler Cowles (1869–1939) and others. Mathematics was put to use in the study of plant and animal populations, and in 1942 Raymond Lindeman (1915–1942) demonstrated the "trophic-dynamic aspect" of ecology to show how energy moves from individual to individual through a local environment.

Since the 1960s, plant physiology has looked more to understanding the relationship between plants and their surrounding environment: studying plant reactions to environmental change, both with a look to the evolutionary mechanisms involved and concerning the ongoing degradation of the global environment.

Moreover, the introduction of genetic research has prompted yet another change in taxonomy, with the rise of phylogenetics, in which variation is traced to the genetic level, allowing botanists to reorganize classification by evolutionary relatedness, replacing previous categories. Relatedly, work on population genetics, genetic engineering, and genomics (the study of all of the genes in a DNA sequence) has blossomed since the 1960s, a no-table recent achievement being the completion of the Arabadopsis thaliana genome—the first plant genome completely sequenced—in 2000. Although some of the work was completed by American researchers and partly funded by the American government, the project represents the prominent international collaborations that are shaping botany today, with aid also provided by the European Union and the Japanese government and research carried out in America, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan.

Bibliography

Evans, Howard Ensign. Pioneer Naturalists: The Discovery and Naming of North American Plants and Animals. New York: Henry Holt, 1993.

Greene, Edward Lee. Landmarks of Botanical History. Edited by Frank N. Egerton. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.

Humphrey, Harry Baker. Makers of North American Botany. New York: Ronald Press, 1961.

Keeney, Elizabeth B. The Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

Mauseth, James D. Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology. 2d ed. Boston: Jones and Bartlett, 1998.

Morton, A. G. History of Botanical Science: An Account of the Development of Botany from Ancient Times to the Present Day. New York: Academic Press, 1981.

Reveal, James L. Gentle Conquest: The Botanical Discovery of North America with Illustrations from the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Starwood, 1992.

Stuckey, Ronald L., ed. Development of Botany in Selected Regions of North America before 1900. New York: Arno Press, 1978.

—Caroline R. Sherman
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Columbia Encyclopedia: botany,
science devoted to the study of plants. Botany, microbiology, and zoology together compose the science of biology. Humanity's earliest concern with plants was with their practical uses, i.e., for fuel, clothing, shelter, and, particularly, food and drugs. The establishment of botany as an intellectual science came in classical times. In the 4th cent. B.C., Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus worked out descriptions and principles of plant types and functions that remained the prototype for botanical observation for 1,000 years. During the stagnant period of the Middle Ages the knowledge of the classical scholars was preserved in the European monasteries and by the Arabs in the Middle East. In the 16th and 17th cent. an interest in botany revived in Europe and spread to America by way of European conquest and colonization. At that time both botany and the art of gardening (see garden) stressed the utility of plants for man; the popular herbal, describing the medical uses of plants, mingled current superstition with fact. In the late 17th and the 18th cent. the influence of the ancient scholars was modified by the growth of scientific botany. Through careful and accurate observation the sciences of taxonomy and morphology (see biology) were developed, providing the basis for the first systematic classification of organisms, chiefly in the work of Linnaeus. With the microscope came the development of plant anatomy and research on the cell. New knowledge of the principles of chemistry and physics spurred experimentation in plant physiology, notably the early work of Stephen Hales on the sources and manufacture of plant food, which led to studies of such basic processes as photosynthesis. Modern botany has expanded into all areas of biology, including molecular biology, and has developed such specialties as ethnobotany, which studies the use of plants in preindustrial societies. Perhaps most significant was the work of Mendel in plant breeding at the middle (1859) of the 19th cent., from which grew the science of genetics. Allied with experimental botany are the various practical aspects that have developed into specific scientific disciplines (e.g., agriculture, agronomy, horticulture, and forestry).

Bibliography

See J. von Sachs, History of Botany (tr. 1890, repr. 1967); C. L. Wilson and W. E. Loomis, Botany (4th ed. 1967); C. B. Lees, Gardens, Plants and Man (1970); A. G. Morton, History of Botanical Science (1981).

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History 1450-1789: Botany

From antiquity into the late eighteenth century, the medical utility of plants provided the primary motive for studying them. However, from the late fifteenth century on, other reasons for the investigation of plants became increasingly important and gave botany a disciplinary and professional identity distinct from medicine. These included: explicating classical texts; portraying plants accurately in works of art; collecting rarities for natural history cabinets, gardens, and museums; exploiting natural resources; glorifying the wonders of creation; and satisfying the curiosity of natural philosophers. The primary thrust of botany in early modern Europe was plant identification, description, and classification, an effort that culminated in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when systematics assimilated morphology, reproduction, anatomy, and geography.

Late Fifteenth Century to Mid-Sixteenth Century

While editing the ancient authorities on medicinal plants—Pliny's Natural History and Dioscorides' De Materia medica (On the materials of medicine)—in the late fifteenth century, Italian humanists looked at living plants to resolve textual problems. In contrast to medieval doctors' dependence on illiterate herb-gatherers, medical humanists in the early sixteenth century strove to emulate Dioscorides' and Galen's firsthand experience with medicinal plants.

The lack of a shared vocabulary for plant description and nomenclature was circumvented by the addition of accurate, detailed, naturalistic woodcut illustrations to printed herbals—a key innovation introduced by Otto Brunfels's (1488–1534) Herbarum Vivae Eicones (Living images of plants, 1530) and Leonhard Fuchs's (1501–1534) Historia Stirpium (Notable commentaries on the history of plants, 1542), and imitated by virtually every herbal thereafter. The failure of Leonardo da Vinci's (1452–1519) superb drawings and observations of plant forms—unfinished at his death in 1519—to influence early modern botany underscores the scientific consequences of coupling the technology of printing to skill in depicting plants.

Beginning in the 1530s, medical schools at Padua, Pisa, Basel, and Montpellier established chairs of botany, required lectures, demonstrations, and field trips, and built botanical gardens. Students of Luca Ghini (1500–1556), professor of botany at Bologna and Pisa, spread his technique of preserving pressed, dried specimens throughout Europe.

Mid-Sixteenth Century to Early Seventeenth Century

The humanist physicians' desire to prescribe the precise plants named by classical authorities spurred Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1578), a Habsburg court physician, to prepare a voluminous illustrated commentary on Dioscorides (first edition, 1544), the best-selling herbal of the period. Its revisions and enlargements helped Renaissance botanists realize that they knew far more plants than their ancient counterparts.

The immense "universal" herbals of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century—published or projected by major botanists from most European countries, including William Turner (c. 1508–1568), Conrad Gessner (1516–1565), Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), Jacques Dalechamps (D'Aléchamps, Dalechampius, 1513–1588), Charles de L'Escluse (Clusius, 1526–1609), Matthias de L'Obel (Lobelius, 1538–1616), Rembert Dodoens (Dodonaeus, 1517–1585), Jean Bauhin (1541–1612), Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624), and John Gerard (1564–1637)—represented efforts to describe both long-familiar plants and the flood of new species. Plants entered European gardens and herbaria through the voyages of discovery and conquest and by exploration of local habitats. Informal networks of professional and amateur enthusiasts surmounted religious and political divisions and fostered a rapid international exchange of specimens, books, pictures, and observations.

To organize their entries, most herbals used a pragmatic mixture of systems, grouping some plants by their uses, others by similarities of form or habitats. Some herbals, emblem books, and books on natural magic—reflecting astrology, Paracelsan chemistry, and the search for symbolic significance in nature—stressed plants' hidden, inner properties, manifested by distinctive external "signatures." Appealing to Aristotle and Theophrastus's philosophical emphasis on growth and reproduction as the essential characteristics of the vegetative soul, Andrea Cesalpino (Caesalpinus, 1524–1603) stressed resemblances of seeds and fruits in grouping plants in his influential De Plantis Libri XVI (On plants, 1583).

Early Seventeenth Century to Late Eighteenth Century

Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624), professor of botany and anatomy at Basel, took the first critical step toward a single botanical lexicon of plant names: his Pinax Theatri Botanici (Pinax, i.e., Index, for the botanical realm, 1623) summarized the synonyms and literature for some six thousand plants—ten times the number in Dioscorides—and assigned them brief descriptive Latin names that emphasized their affinities. (Pinax remains an indispensable guide to identifying plants in earlier works.) An equally important step came from Joachim Jung's (1587–1657) astute analysis of plant parts, which reached John Ray (1627–1705)—English cleric, naturalist, natural philosopher, and fellow of the Royal Society—by 1660 in manuscript. Between 1660 and 1704, Ray linked taxonomy, nomenclature, morphology, and bibliography in a series of strictly botanical books that brought together first-hand accounts of many previously undescribed plants, new technical terminology (such as petal, calyx, cotyledon), close observations of growth and form, and deep reflection on method.

Ray spelled out the combinations of essential morphological features that defined natural classes of plants. While acknowledging natural groupings at least at the genus/species level (categories that went back to Aristotle), the French botanist, J. P. de Tournefort (1656–1708), countered with a convenient and widely adopted artificial system of classification based primarily on the disposition of flower parts.

The chemical composition of plants and the form and function of plant parts, previously regarded as unimportant, came under the scrutiny of botanists trained in iatrochemistry—notably Guy de la Brosse (1586–1641), the founder of the Paris Jardin des Plantes in 1640—and in microscopy. Robert Hooke (1635–1703) and Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712) in England and Marcello Malphighi (1628–1694) in Italy reported to the Royal Society in the late seventeenth century on their experimental investigations of plant cells and tissue structures. Stephen Hales (1677–1761) in the 1720s and Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) and Jan Ingen-Housz (1730–1799) half a century later devised chemical and physical experiments to measure plant nutrition and metabolism.

The demonstration of sexual reproduction in flowering plants—in an obscure 1694 publication, De Sexu Plantarum Epistola (On the sex of plants), by Rudolf Jacob Camerer (Camerarius), professor of medicine at Tübingen—both resolved a longstanding question and provided the brilliant Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) with the basis of a taxonomic system that overrode all earlier proposals.

Believing that God had created species and genera, Linnaeus embedded their essential characters in his binomial nomenclature—henceforth giving the terms "genus" and "species" distinctive scientific meanings. Although Linnaeus clearly recognized larger natural groupings (plant families were methodically elucidated by the French botanists Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu [1748–1836] and Michel Adanson [1727–1806] in the late eighteenth century), his Species Plantarum (Species of plants, 1753) constructed a deliberately artificial system of classification, easily understood by anyone—even "ladies"—who could count the sexual parts of flowers. By imposing a common language and rational organization on the plant kingdom, Linnaeus made botany both a symbol of divine order and the epitome of Enlightenment science.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Bauhinus, Casparus. Pinax Theatri Botanici. Basel, 1623.

Brunfelsius, Otho. Herbarum Vivae Eicones. Strasbourg, 1530.

Camerarius, Rudolphus Jacobus. De Sexu Plantarum Epistola. Tübingen, 1694.

Caesalpinus, Andreas. De Plantis Libri XVI. Florence, 1583.

Linnaeus, Carl. Species Plantarum. London, 1957–1959. A facsimile of the first edition, 1753.

Meyer, Frederick G., Emily Emmart Trueblood, and John L. Heller. The Great Herbal of Leonhart Fuchs: Vol. 1, Commentary; Vol. 2, De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes, 1542: Facsimile. Stanford, 1999.

Secondary Sources

Arber, Agnes. Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470–1670. 3rd ed. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1986. Facsimile reprint of second edition (1938), with an introduction and annotations by William T. Stearn.

Findlen, Paula. Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. Berkeley, 1994.

Koerner, Lisbet. Linnaeus: Nature and Nation. Cambridge, Mass., 1999.

Morton, A. G. History of Botanical Science: An Account of the Development of Botany from Ancient Times to the Present Day. London and New York, 1981.

Reeds, Karen Meier. Botany in Medieval and Renaissance Universities. New York, 1991.

—KAREN REEDS
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Science Dictionary: botany

The scientific study and categorization of plants. (See fruit, photosynthesis, and plant kingdom.)
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Devil's Dictionary: botany
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

The science of vegetables -- those that are not good to eat, as well as those that are. It deals largely with their flowers, which are commonly badly designed, inartistic in color, and ill- smelling.
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Gardener's Dictionary: botany

The science or study of plants.

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Wikipedia: Botany

For other meanings, see Botany (disambiguation)

Pinguicula grandiflora commonly known as a Butterwort
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Pinguicula grandiflora commonly known as a Butterwort
Example of a cross section of a stem [1]
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Example of a cross section of a stem [1]

Botany is the scientific study of plant life. As a branch of biology, it is also called plant science(s), phytology, or plant biology. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study plants, algae, and fungi including: structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, and chemical properties and evolutionary relationships between the different groups. The study of plants and botany began with tribal lore, used to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making botany one of the oldest sciences. From this ancient interest in plants, the scope of botany has increased to include the study of over 550,000 kinds or species of living organisms.

Scope and importance of botany
Hibiscus
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Hibiscus

As with other life forms in biology, plant life can be studied from different perspectives, from the molecular, genetic and biochemical level through organelles, cells, tissues, organs, individuals, plant populations, and communities of plants. At each of these levels a botanist might be concerned with the classification (taxonomy), structure (anatomy and morphology), or function (physiology) of plant life.

Historically, botany covers all organisms that were not considered to be animals. Some of these "plant-like" organisms include fungi (studied in mycology), bacteria and viruses (studied in microbiology), and algae (studied in phycology). Most algae, fungi, and microbes are no longer considered to be in the plant kingdom. However, attention is still given to them by botanists, and bacteria, fungi, and algae are usually covered in introductory botany courses.

The study of plants has importance for a number of reasons. Plants are a fundamental part of life on Earth. They generate the oxygen, food, fibres, fuel and medicine that allow higher life forms to exist. Plants also absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, a minor greenhouse gas that in large amounts can effect global climate. It is believed that the evolution of plants has changed the global atmosphere of the earth early in the earth's history and paleobotanists study ancient plants in the fossil record. A good understanding of plants is crucial to the future of human societies as it allows us to:

* Produce food to feed an expanding population
* Understand fundamental life processes
* Produce medicine and materials to treat diseases and other ailments
* Understand environmental changes more clearly

Human nutrition
Nearly all the food we eat comes (directly and indirectly) from plants like this American long grain rice.
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Nearly all the food we eat comes (directly and indirectly) from plants like this American long grain rice.

Virtually all foods eaten come from plants, either directly from staple foods and other fruit and vegetables, or indirectly through livestock or other animals, which rely on plants for their nutrition. Plants are the fundamental base of nearly all food chains because they use the energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil and atmosphere and convert them into a form that can be consumed and utilized by animals, this is what ecologists call the first trophic level. Botanists also study how plants produce food we can eat and how to increase yields and therefore their work is important in mankind's ability to feed the world and provide food security for future generations, for example through plant breeding. Botanists also study weeds, plants which are considered to be a nuisance in a particular location. Weeds are a considerable problem in agriculture, and botany provides some of the basic science used to understand how to minimize 'weed' impact in agriculture and native ecosystems. Ethnobotany is the study of the relationships between plants and people.
Gregor Mendel laid the foundations of modern genetics from his studies of plants.
Gregor Mendel laid the foundations of modern genetics from his studies of plants.

Fundamental life processes

Plants are convenient organisms in which fundamental life processes (like cell division and protein synthesis for example) can be studied, without the ethical dilemmas of studying animals or humans. The genetic laws of inheritance were discovered in this way by Gregor Mendel, who was studying the way pea shape is inherited. What Mendel learned from studying plants has had far reaching benefits outside of botany. Additionally, Barbara McClintock discovered 'jumping genes' by studying maize. These are a few examples that demonstrate how botanical research has an ongoing relevance to the understanding of fundamental biological processes.

Medicine and materials

Many medicinal and recreational drugs, like cannabis, caffeine, and nicotine come directly from the plant kingdom. Others are simple derivatives of botanical natural products; for example aspirin is based on the pain killer salicylic acid which originally came from the bark of willow trees.[2] There may be many novel cures for diseases provided by plants, waiting to be discovered. Popular stimulants like coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and tea also come from plants. Most alcoholic beverages come from fermenting plants such as barley malt and grapes.

Plants also provide us with many natural materials, such as cotton, wood, paper, linen, vegetable oils, some types of rope, and rubber. The production of silk would not be possible without the cultivation of the mulberry plant. Sugarcane, rapeseed, soy and other plants with a highly-fermentable sugar or oil content have recently been put to use as sources of biofuels, which are important alternatives to fossil fuels, see biodiesel.

Environmental changes

Plants can also help us understand changes in on our environment in many ways.

* Understanding habitat destruction and species extinction is dependent on an accurate and complete catalog of plant systematics and taxonomy.
* Plant responses to ultraviolet radiation can help us monitor problems like the ozone depletion.
* Analyzing pollen deposited by plants thousands or millions of years ago can help scientists to reconstruct past climates and predict future ones, an essential part of climate change research.
* Recording and analyzing the timing of plant life cycles are important parts of phenology used in climate-change research.
* Lichens, which are sensitive to atmospheric conditions, have been extensively used as pollution indicators.

In many different ways, plants can act a little like the 'miners canary', an early warning system alerting us to important changes in our environment. In addition to these practical and scientific reasons, plants are extremely valuable as recreation for millions of people who enjoy gardening, horticultural and culinary uses of plants every day.

Etymology

From Greek βοτάνη = "pasture, grass, fodder", perhaps via the idea of a livestock keeper needing to know which plants are safe for livestock to eat.

History
The traditional tools of a botanist.
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The traditional tools of a botanist.

Early examples of plant taxonomy occur in the Rigveda, that divides plants into Vrska (tree), Osadhi (herbs useful to humans) and Virudha (creepers). which are further subdivided. The Atharvaveda divides plants into eight classes, Visakha (spreading branches), Manjari (leaves with long clusters), Sthambini (bushy plants), Prastanavati (which expands); Ekasrnga (those with monopodial growth), Pratanavati (creeping plants), Amsumati (with many stalks), and Kandini (plants with knotty joints). The Taittiriya Samhita and classifies the plant kingdom into vrksa, vana and druma (trees), visakha (shrubs with spreading branches), sasa (herbs), amsumali (a spreading or deliquescent plant), vratati (climber), stambini (bushy plant), pratanavati (creeper), and alasala (those spreading on the ground).

Manusmriti proposed a classification of plants in eight major categories. Charaka Samhitā and Sushruta Samhita and the Vaisesikas also present an elaborate taxonomy.

Parashara, the author of Vrksayurveda (the science of life of trees), classifies plants into Dvimatrka (Dicotyledons) and Ekamatrka (Monocotyledons). These are further classified into Samiganiya (Fabaceae), Puplikagalniya (Rutaceae), Svastikaganiya (Cruciferae), Tripuspaganiya (Cucurbitaceae), Mallikaganiya (Apocynaceae), and Kurcapuspaganiya (Asteraceae). [2]

Among the earliest of botanical works, written around 300 B.C., are two large treatises by Theophrastus: On the History of Plants (Historia Plantarum) and On the Causes of Plants. Together these books constitute the most important contribution to botanical science during antiquity and on into the Middle Ages. The Roman medical writer Dioscorides provides important evidence on Greek and Roman knowledge of medicinal plants.

In ancient China, the recorded listing of different plants and herb concoctions for pharmaceutical purposes spans back to at least the Warring States (481 BC-221 BC). Many Chinese writers over the centuries contributed to the written knowledge of herbal pharmaceutics. There was the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) written work of the Huangdi Neijing and the famous pharmacologist Zhang Ji of the 2nd century. There was also the 11th century scientists and statesmen Su Song and Shen Kuo, who compiled treatises on herbal medicine and included the use of mineralogy.

Important medieval works of plant physiology include the Prthviniraparyam of Udayana, Nyayavindutika of Dharmottara, Saddarsana-samuccaya of Gunaratna, and Upaskara of Sankaramisra. [3]

In 1665, using an early microscope, Robert Hooke discovered cells in cork, and a short time later in living plant tissue. The German Leonhart Fuchs, the Swiss Conrad von Gesner, and the British authors Nicholas Culpeper and John Gerard published herbals that gave information on the medicinal uses of plants.

In 1754 Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus) devided the plant Kingdom into 25 classes. One, the Cryptogamia, included all the plants with concealed reproductive parts (algae, fungi, mosses and liverworts and ferns).[3]

Modern botany

A considerable amount of new knowledge today is being generated from studying model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana. This weedy species in the mustard family was one of the first plants to have its genome sequenced. The sequencing of the rice (Oryza sativa) genome and a large international research community have made rice the de facto cereal/grass/monocot model. Another grass species, Brachypodium distachyon is also emerging as an experimental model for understanding the genetic, cellular and molecular biology of temperate grasses. Other commercially-important staple foods like wheat, maize, barley, rye, pearl millet and soybean are also having their genomes sequenced. Some of these are challenging to sequence because they have more than two haploid (n) sets of chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy, common in the plant kingdom. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (a single-celled, green alga) is another plant model organism that has been extensively studied and provided important insights into cell biology.

In 1998 the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group published a phylogeny of flowering plants based on an analysis of DNA sequences from most families of flowering plants. As a result of this work, major questions such as which families represent the earliest branches in the genealogy of angiosperms are now understood. Investigating how plant species are related to each other allows botanists to better understand the process of evolution in plants.

Subdisciplines of Botany

* Agronomy—Application of plant science to crop production
* Bryology—Mosses, liverworts, and hornwarts
* Economic botany—The place of plants in economics
* Ethnobotany—Relationship between humans and plants
* Forestry—Forest management and related studies
* Horticulture—Cultivated plants
* Paleobotany—Fossil plants
* Palynology—Pollen and spores
* Phycology - Algae
* Phytochemistry—Plant secondary chemistry and chemical processes
* Phytopathology—Plant diseases
* Plant anatomy—Cell and tissue structure
* Plant ecology—Role of plants in the environment
* Plant genetics—Genetic inheritance in plants
* Plant morphology—Structure and life cycles
* Plant physiology—Life functions of plants
* Plant systematics—Classification and naming of plants

See also
Crantz's Classis cruciformium..., 1769
Enlarge
Crantz's Classis cruciformium..., 1769

* History of plant systematics
* History of phycology
* Botanical garden and List of botanical gardens
* Dendrochronology
* List of domesticated plants
* Edible Flowers
* Flowers and List of flowers
* Forestry
* Herbs
* List of botanical journals
* List of botanists
* List of botanists by author abbreviation
* List of systems of plant taxonomy
* List of publications in biology
* Paleobotany
* Palynology
* Plant anatomy
* Seeds
* Plant physiology
* Plant community
* Plant sexuality
* Soil science


Part of a series on
Horticulture and Gardening
RegaderaMetalica.jpg
Gardening

Gardening • Garden • Botanical garden • Arboretum • Botany • Plant
Horticulture

Horticulture • Agriculture • Urban agriculture • City farm • Organic farming • Herb farm • Hobby farm • Intercropping • Farm
Customs

Harvest festival • Thanksgiving • History of agriculture
Plant protection

Phytopathology • Pesticide • Weed control

* Trees
* Vegetation
* Weed Science

References

1. ^ Winterborne J, 2005. Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture [1]
2. ^ Mann, J. (1987). Secondary Metabolism, 2nd ed.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 186-187. ISBN 0-19-855529-6.
3. ^ Hoek, C.van den, Mann, D.G. and Jahns, H.M. 2005. Algae An Introduction to Phycology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0 521 30419 9

* U.S. Geological Survey. National Biological Information Infrastructure: Botany

Further reading

Popular science style books on Botany

* Attenborough, David The Private Life of Plants, ISBN 0-563-37023-8
* Bellamy, D Bellamy on Botany, ISBN 0-563-10666-2 an accessible and short introduction to various botanical subjects
* Capon, B: Botany for Gardeners ISBN 0-88192-655-8
* Cohen, J. How many people can the earth support? W.W. Norton 1995 ISBN 0-393-31495-2
* Halle, Francis. In praise of plants ISBN 0-88192-550-0. English translation of a poetic advocacy of plants.
* King, J. Reaching for the sun: How plants work ISBN 0-521-58738-7. A fluent introduction to how plants work.
* Pakenham, T: Remarkable Trees of the World (2002) ISBN 0-297-84300-1
* Pakenham, T: Meetings with Remarkable Trees (1996) ISBN 0-297-83255-7
* Pollan, M The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World Bloomsbury ISBN 0-7475-6300-4 Account of the co-evolution of plants and humans
* Thomas, B.A.: The evolution of plants and flowers St Martin's Press 1981 ISBN 0-312-27271-5
* Walker, D. Energy, Plants and Man ISBN 1-870232-05-4 A presentation of the basic concepts of photosynthesis

Academic and Scientific books on Botany

* Buchanan, B.B., Gruissem, W & Jones, R.L. (2000) Biochemistry & molecular biology of plants. American Society of Plant Physiologists ISBN 0-943088-39-9
* Crawford, R. M. M. (1989). Studies in plant survival. Blackwell. ISBN 0-632-01475-X
* Crawley, M. J. (1997). Plant ecology. Blackwell Scientific. ISBN 0-632-03639-7
* Ennos, R and Sheffield, E Plant life, Blackwell Science, ISBN 0-86542-737-2 Introduction to plant biodiversity
* Fitter, A & Hay, R Environmental physiology of plants 3rd edition Sept 2001 Harcourt Publishers, Academic Press ISBN 0-12-257766-3
* Lambers, H., Chapin, F.S. III and Pons, T.L. 1998. Plant Physiological Ecology. Springer-Verlag, New York. ISBN 0-387-98326-0
* Lawlor, D.W. (2000) Photosynthesis BIOS ISBN 1-85996-157-6
* Matthews, R. E. F. Fundamentals of plant virology Academic Press,1992.
* Mauseth, J.D.: Botany : an introduction to plant biology. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, ISBN 0-7637-2134-4, A first year undergraduate level textbook
* Morton, A.G. (1981). History of Botanical Science.Academic Press, London. ISBN 0-12-508380-7 (hardback) ISBN 0-12-508382-3 (paperback)
* Raven, P.H, Evert R.H and Eichhorn, S.E: Biology of Plants, Freeman. ISBN 1-57259-041-6, A first year undergraduate level textbook
* Richards, P. W. (1996). The tropical rainforest. 2nd ed. C.U.P. (Pbk) ISBN 0-521-42194-2 £32.50
* Ridge, I. (2002) Plants Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-925548-2
* Salisbury, FB and Ross, CW: Plant physiology Wadsworth publishing company ISBN 0-534-15162-0
* Stace, C. A. A new flora of the British Isles. 2nd ed. C.U.P.,1997. ISBN 0-521-58935-5
* Strange, R. L. Introduction to plant pathology. Wiley-VCH, 2003. ISBN 0-470-84973-8
* Taiz, L. & Zeiger, E. (1998). Plant physiology. 3rd ed. August 2002 Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0-87893-823-0
* Walter, H. (1985). Vegetation of the earth. 3rd rev. ed. Springer.
* Willis, K (2002) The evolution of plants Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-850065-3 £22-99

External links
Wikiversity
At Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about Botany at:
The Department of Botany
Wikibooks
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Botany


* Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
* plant growth and the plant cell from Kimball's Biology Pages
* Botanical Society of America: What is Botany?
* Science and Plants for Schools
* Teaching Documents about Botany Teaching documents, lecture notes and tutorials online: an annotated link directory.
* American society of plant biologists APSB
* Why study Plants? Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
* Botany Photo of the Day

Flora and other plant catalogs or databases

* The Virtual Library of Botany
* High quality pictures of plants and information about them from Catholic University of Leuven
* Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1790-1856
* The Trees Of Great Britain and Ireland, by Henry John Elwes & Augustine Henry, 1906-1913
* Botanik-Datenbank (ger.)
* Plant Directory (ger.)
* USDA plant database
* The Linnean Society of London
* Native Plant Information Network


Botany
Subdisciplines of botany Ethnobotany · Paleobotany · Plant anatomy · Plant ecology · Plant morphology · Plant physiology
Plants Evolutionary history of plants · Algae · Bryophyte · Pteridophyte · Gymnosperm · Angiosperm
Plant parts Flower · Fruit · Leaf · Meristem · Root · Stem · Stoma · Vascular tissue · Wood
Plant cells Cell wall · Chlorophyll · Chloroplast · Photosynthesis · Plant hormone · Plastid · Transpiration
Plant life cycles Gametophyte · Plant sexuality · Pollen · Pollination · Seed · Spore · Sporophyte
Plant taxonomy Botanical name · Botanical nomenclature · Herbarium · IAPT · ICBN · Species Plantarum
Category · Project · Portal
Major subtopics of biology
Anatomy - Astrobiology - Biochemistry - Bioinformatics - Botany - Cell biology - Ecology - Developmental biology - Evolutionary biology - Genetics - Genomics - Marine biology - Human biology - Microbiology - Molecular biology - Origin of life - Paleontology - Parasitology - Pathology - Physiology - Taxonomy - Zoology

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Translations: Translations for: Botany

Dansk (Danish)
n. - botanik

n. - kamgarn, merinould

Nederlands (Dutch)
botanie, plantkunde

Français (French)
n. - botanique

n. - laine mérinos (d'Australie)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Botanik, Pflanzenkunde

n. - Merino Wolle (vor allem Australien)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - βοτανική, φυτολογία

Italiano (Italian)
botanica

Português (Portuguese)
n. - botânica (f)

Русский (Russian)
ботаника

Español (Spanish)
n. - botánica

n. - lana merina de Australia

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - botanik

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
植物学

植物学

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 植物學

n. - 植物學

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 식물학, 전체 식물

n. - 오스트레일리아 산의 최고급 메리노 양모

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 植物学, 一地域の植物, 一地域の植物の生態

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) علم النبات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תורת הצומח, בוטניקה‬
n. - ‮צמר של כבשי מרינו, בייחוד מאוסטרליה‬

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