Agnes Robertson Arber was a British plant morphologist and anatomist, historian of botany and
philosopher of biology. She was the first woman botanist to be elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society (in 1946, at the age of 67) and the third woman
overall. She was the first woman to receive the Gold Medal of the Linnean
Society of London (in 1948, at the age of 69) for her contributions to
botanical science.
Her scientific research focused on the monocotyledon group of flowering
plants. She also contributed to development of morphological studies in botany
during the early part of the 20th century. Her later work concentrated on the
topic of philosophy in botany, particularly on the nature of biological
research.
At the age of eight Arber began attending the North London Collegiate
School founded and run by Frances Buss, one of the leading proponents for
girls' education. Under the direction of the school's science teacher, Miss
Edith Aitken, Arber discovered a fascination with botany, publishing her first
piece of research in 1894 in the school's magazine and later coming first in
the school's botany examinations, winning a scholarship. It was here that Arber
first met Ethel Sargent, a plant morphologist who gave regular presentations to
the school science club. Sargent would later become her mentor and colleague,
having a profound influence on Arber's research interests and methods.
In 1897 Arber began studying at University College, London, gaining her
B.Sc. in 1899. After gaining an entrance scholarship Arber became a member of
Newnham College, Cambridge and took a further degree in Natural Sciences. She
gained first class results in every examination at both universities, along
with several prizes and medals from University College, London. After finishing her Cambridge degree in 1902
Arber worked in the private laboratory of Ethel Sargent for a year, before
returning to University College, London as holder of the Quain Studentship in
Biology. She was awarded a Doctorate of Science in 1905.
Before attending University College, London Arber spent the summer of
1897 working with Ethel Sargent in her private laboratory in Reigate, where
Sargent instructed her on microtechniques used to prepare plant specimens for
microscopic examination. Arber returned to work in Sargent's laboratory at
least once during the summer holidays while she was studying at University
College London. Sargent employed Arber between 1902–1903 as a research
assistant working on seedling structures, during which time in 1903 she
published her first paper 'Notes on the anatomy of Macrozamia heteromera' in
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Whilst at University
College London Arber conducted research on the gymnosperm group of plants,
producing several papers on their morphology and anatomy. The study and
philosophy of plant morphology would become the central focus of her later
work.
In 1909 Arber was granted space in the Balfour Laboratory for Women by
Newnham College. This building had been purchased and founded by the two
women's colleges of the University in 1884 for the use of their students and
researchers (women at this time were not permitted to attend laboratory
demonstrations and practical classes). Arber worked in the laboratory until its
closure in 1927.
Following the award of a Research Fellowship by Newnham College between
1912–1913 Arber published her first book in 1912. Herbals, their origin and
evolution describes the transformation of printed Herbals between 1470–1670.
Arber links the emergence and development of botany as a discipline within
natural history with the evolution of plant descriptions, classifications and
identifications seen in Herbals during this period. Arber was able to consult
the large collection of printed Herbals in the library of the Botany School at
Cambridge as part of her research for this work. It was largely re-written and
expanded for a second edition published in 1938, was published as a third
edition in 1986 and is still considered the standard work for the history of
Herbals.
Arber focused her research on the anatomy and morphology of the monocot
group of plants, which she had originally been introduced to by Ethel Sargent.
By 1920 she had authored two books and 94 other publications. Her second book
Water Plants: A Study of Aquatic Angiosperms was published in 1920. In this
book Arber presents a comparative study of aquatic plants by analyzing
differences in their morphology. Arber also provides interpretations of the
general principles she used to create her analysis. Her study was the first to
provide a general description and interpretation of aquatic plants.
In 1925 Arber published her third book The Monocotyledons. The Editors
of the Cambridge Botanical Handbooks series had asked Ethel Sargent in 1910 to
prepare a volume on the monocots for this series. However ill-health and
advancing years made it almost impossible for Sargent to complete the book, and
in 1918 she suggested Arber to complete the work. The Monocotyledons continues
Arber's morphological methods of analysis she presented in Water Plants. She
provides a detailed study of the monocot plants from comparing their internal
and external anatomy. However her discussion of the general principles she uses
in her analysis are more explicit in this volume, as she discusses the methods
and philosophy of morphological study. Although comparative anatomical analysis
as demonstrated in The Monocotyledons and Water Plants: A Study of Aquatic
Angiosperms was central to botanical investigation in the early 20th century,
there were distinct differences between British and European researchers
concerning the aims of morphological study. Arber addressed this by creating a
distinction between "pure" and "applied" morphology, with
her work focusing on comparative anatomy to investigate questions concerning
significant topics such as constructing phylogenies, instead of using
traditional views of plant structure. This view was further developed in her
later work.
After the closure of the Balfour Laboratory Arber set up a small
laboratory in a back room of her house to conduct her research, after the
resident head of the Botany School Professor Albert Charles Seward claimed
there was no space in the School for Arber to continue her research using its
facilities. Arber had been introduced to the idea of private research from her
time spent with Ethel Sargent in 1902–1903, and from later comments to members
of Girton College Natural Sciences club and in letters to friends she stated
she liked working at home due to challenges posed by independent research,
despite not originally making the choice herself.
After the publication of The Monocotyledons Arber continued her
research into this group, concentrating her research into the Gramineae family
of plants, especially cereals, grasses and bamboo. This led to the publication
of her final book concerning plant morphology, The Gramineae in 1934. In this
book Arber described the life cycles, embryology and reproductive and
vegetative cycles of cereals, grasses and bamboo using comparative anatomical
analysis of these plants. Recognizing the importance of these plants to the
development of human societies, Arber begins this study with the history of
these plants in relation to humans, with "the more strictly botanical aspect
is treated as developing out of the humanistic". The book was preceded by
10 papers in The Annals of Botany detailing the results of her research.
Between 1930–1942 Arber conducted research into the structure of
flowers, where she investigated the structure of many different forms and used
to morphological information to interpret other flower structures. Her results
were published in 10 review papers spanning this period. In 1937 she published
a summary of the morphological ideas which had been discussed concerning floral
structure, which was considered an important review article for morphological
studies.
In January 1942 Arber published her last paper involving original
botanical research. All of her subsequent publications were entirely concerned with
historical and philosophical topics.
Philosophical studies
During the Second World War Arber found it difficult to maintain her
small laboratory, as supplies were becoming more difficult to obtain. This led
to her decision to stop performing laboratory work and to concentrate more on
philosophical and historical issues. Arber published work on historical
botanists, including a comparison between Nehemiah Grew and Marcello Malpighi
in 1942, John Ray in 1943 and Sir Joseph Banks in 1945.
Arber had been introduced to the work of Goethe while at school and
remained fascinated by his ideas about botany. In 1946 she published Goethe's
Botany, a translation of Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants (1790) and Georg
Christoph Tobler's (1757–1812) Die Natur with an introduction and
interpretation of the texts.
The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form, published in 1950 has been
considered the most important of Arber's books. Arber discusses the processes
behind forming a concept from research and examines the philosophy of plant
morphology. Arber uses this to examine the structure of flowering plants, and
proposes the partial-shoot theory of the leaf. According to this theory, each
element of the plant is a shoot or a partial shoot. Leaves are partial shoots
that show reduced growth capacity. She mentions: “the leaf is a partial-shoot,
revealing an inherent urge towards becoming a whole shoot, but never actually
attaining this goal, since radial symmetry and the capacity for apical growth
suffer inhibition”. The parallelism of leaf and shoot dates back to Goethe, who
first described compound leaves as in “reality branches, the buds of which
cannot develop, since the common stalk is too frail”. For Arber, compound
leaves are clusters of united partial-shoots. Recent developmental genetic
evidence has supported aspects of the partial shoot-theory of the leaf,
especially in the case of compound leaves.
Her studies on the philosophy of plant morphology led her to take a
broader view of the links between science and philosophy. The Mind and the Eye:
A Biologist's Standpoint published in 1954 provides an introduction to
biological research and develops a methodology for performing this research.
Arber describes research as taking place in six stages: the identification of
research question or topic; the collection of data through experiments or
observation; the interpretation of the data; testing the validity of the
interpretation; communicating the results; and considering the research in
context. For Arber, the context includes interpreting the result in terms of
history and philosophy and covers half of the book. Arber's book is distinctive
in that it was written before Thomas Kuhn demonstrated that scientist's views
are influenced by the views of others in their field and before Ernst Mayr's
criticism of describing the philosophy of biology in the same way as the
philosophy of physics.
Her final book, The Manifold and the One published in 1957 is concerned
with wider philosophical questions. The book is a wide-ranging and syncretic
survey, drawing on literary, scientific, religious, mystical and philosophical
traditions, incorporating Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist philosophy with European
philosophy., in pursuit of a discussion of the mystical experience which Arber
defines as “that direct and unmediated contemplation which is characterized by
a peculiarly intense awareness of a Whole as the Unity of all things”.
Agnes Arber died in 1960 at the age of 81.