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Taxonomic revision of the native Magnolia (Magnoliaceae) species of Brazil.
No full textThe genus (Magnoliaceae) has a wide and disjunct geographic distribution ranging from Eastern and South Asia to Malaysia, extending across the Neartics and reaching into the Neotropics. Regarding its infrageneric classification, the genus is divided into three subgenera: , and , the latter including the section Talauma in which the native Brazilian taxa are classified. The species of Magnolia sect. Talauma can be recognized by two parallel longitudinal scars on the petiole formed by the shedding of the stipules, in addition to a woody syncarp that breaks into irregular plates at dehiscence. Currently, in Brazil, species recognition is not clear on national platforms that are widely used by the Brazilian botanical community (e.g. Flora do Brasil), with only two native species being accepted: and . The lack of knowledge about the species and their respective characteristics has resulted in many identification errors in Brazilian herbaria, which contributes to the lack of knowledge about their current conservation status. We conducted a complete taxonomic revision based on extensive fieldwork, a herbarium survey, along with literature study. Based on this, we propose to recognize three previously described species, supporting the acceptance of five native occurring in Brazil, namely: , , , and . However, we follow the Flora do Brasil in maintaining as a synonym of . Additionally, we designate a lectotype for . We present morphological descriptions and the geographic distribution for each species, in addition to an identification key to all of these plus the two introduced ornamental species from Asia and North America, illustrations, photographs, ecological data, updated conservation status and taxonomic notes
The Thomason Tracts and Presbyterian Mobilization
No full textThis chapter uses the Thomason Tracts as a collection, as well as the partisan attitudes of Thomason himself, to assess the use of print in the bitter conflicts that divided parliamentarians in the 1640s. It compares the stress on division revealed in printed accounts of two particularly fraught episodes in 1646 - the March petition from zealous Presbyterians against lay commissioners, and the controversies over the City Remonstrance in May - to the more ambiguous account in the manuscript journal of the Independent leaning Thomas Juxon. It seeks to complicate simple dichotomies between print, manuscript and oral communication in revolutionary London
John Hammond and the Explosion of Print in 1641: Commercial and Political Opportunities
No full textOne of the great values of Thomason’s collection of civil war tracts and newsbooks is the opportunity that it affords for analysing the nature of the print trade during a key phase of the so-called ‘print revolution’. Given the so-called ‘explosion’ of cheap print that accompanied the descent into civil war, and the vital role that print played in the political and religious turmoil of the revolutionary decades, it is vital to explore the role that stationers played, and to reflect upon their identities, not least in terms of the relationship between commercial motives and ideological imperatives. This chapter reconstructs and analyses the imprint of one such stationer, John Hammond, and explores his activity as both a commercial and a political actor. As such, it addresses the vital but vexed issue of the relationship between profit and politics in the world of early modern publishing
Human influence on the distribution of cacao: insights from remote sensing and biogeography.
No full textCacao ( , Malvaceae) is an important tree crop in Africa and in the Americas. Current genomic evidence suggests that its original range in Tropical Americas was smaller than its current distribution and that human-mediated dispersal occurred before European colonization. This includes regions like Mesoamerica and Eastern Amazonia where cacao is supposedly naturally occurring. In this study, we utilize remote sensing and land use data to examine the influence of human activities on cacao-growing regions and explore patterns between cacao distribution and anthropized areas. By evaluating nearly nine thousand preserved specimen collections, we worked with a comprehensive occurrence dataset that considers taxonomy and distribution. We then analyzed remote sensing images of specimen locations and compared land use profiles of regions into which cacao was introduced with documented native areas. Our findings revealed a clear association between anthropized areas and cacao specimens, with the majority located in areas strongly affected by human activities. Conversely, regions closer to the proposed native range of cacao exhibit less human impact. These results, while accounting for sampling bias, reinforce the idea that humans may have played a significant role in cacao’s dispersal, even in parts of the Amazon where its native status remains uncertain. The discussion on cacao’s native range and identification of introduced areas hold implications for jurisdiction, access to genetic resources, and conservation efforts. Additionally, it is relevant to debates surrounding the repatriation of genetic data of economically important crops. Understanding the historical human influence on cacao’s distribution is crucial for addressing issues of crop improvement, conservation, and sustainable use
Cytotoxic ent-abietane diterpenoids, banyangmbolides A-E, from the leaves of Suregada occidentalis.
No full textHamilton Palace: The Dukes of Hamilton and their collections
No full textThis is the story of Scotland’s lost treasure trove.
The destruction of Hamilton Palace, the grandest stately home in Britain, was one of the greatest losses to national heritage ever to happen in this country.
In 1882, Hamilton Palace stood grandly to the south-east of Glasgow. Home to the Dukes of Hamilton for nearly 300 years, inside its magnificent walls lived treasures to rival the Royal Collection. Exquisite furniture, famed paintings, coveted objets d’art, the finest finds from antiquity: it was the hoard of a family Daniel Defoe once called ‘great possessors.’
Yet by 1921, all of the Palace’s contents had been sold to the highest bidder and the stately home condemned for demolition. The spiral of decline started by the 10th duke’s grand architectural changes ended in subsidence caused by excessive coalmining.
Today, the treasures of Hamilton Palace are on display in museums and collections all over the world. National Museums Scotland, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the National Trust, the Louvre, Lennoxlove House and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts – all have carefully collected, stored, conserved and exhibited rooms and objects from Scotland’s lost treasure trove
Forager-farmer transition at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia 4900 years ago
No full textThe southward expansion of East Asian farmers profoundly influenced the social evolution of Southeast Asia by introducing cereal agriculture. However, the timing and routes of cereal expansion in key regions are unclear due to limited empirical evidence. Here we report macrofossil, microfossil, multiple isotopic (C/N/Sr/O) and paleoproteomic data directly from radiocarbon-dated human samples, which were unearthed from a site in Xingyi in central Yunnan and which date between 7000 and 3300 a BP. Dietary isotopes reveal the earliest arrival of millet ca. 4900 a BP, and greater reliance on plant and animal agriculture was indicated between 3800 and 3300 a BP. The dietary differences between hunter-gatherer and agricultural groups are also evident in the metabolic and immune system proteins analysed from their skeletal remains. The results of paleoproteomic analysis indicate that humans had divergent biological adaptations, with and without farming. The combined application of isotopes, archaeobotanical data and proteomics provides a new approach to documenting dietary and health changes across major subsistence transitions
From The Queen’s College to Montagu House: The History of the Thomason Tracts after the Restoration
No full textAlthough the Thomason collection is rightly regarded as one of the treasures of the British Library, its survival was by no means inevitable. This chapter revisits the convoluted history of its fortunes after Thomason ceased collecting in 1661, shedding new light upon his own hopes and expectations regarding its fate, and reconstructing various attempts to effect its sale over the next hundred years, culminating in its acquisition by Lord Bute, and its presentation to the British Museum by George III. What emerges is new evidence about how the importance of the collection was promoted and recognized, thereby making comprehensible how it remained more or less intact, and came to be perceived as something that needed to be made safe for posterity, and that would be useful to the ‘publique’
George Thomason and London in the 1650s
No full textThomason’s involvement in public politics, which had been extensive during the 1640s, brought him considerable personal trouble following the execution of Charles I, an event that he clearly opposed. Like many others who had been active Presbyterians before 1649, he became an opponent of the republican regime, and this chapter traces his career during the 1650s, when he became a leading member of the Stationers’ Company, during a period which witnessed notable in-fighting, and when he was briefly imprisoned and investigated upon suspicion of being involved in a royalist conspiracy that became known as the ‘Love plot’. The chapter also traces his eventual support for the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, and reflects upon his response to the policies of the restored Stuart regime
Landrace diversity and heritage of the indigenous millet crop fonio (Digitaria exilis): Socio‐cultural and climatic drivers of change in the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea.
No full textLe fonio blanc ( [Kippist] Stapf) est une culture de mil peu étudiée, indigène d'Afrique de l'Ouest et cultivée dans la région en grande partie selon des pratiques traditionnelles. Cette espèce est résiliente au climat, à croissance rapide, riche sur le plan nutritionnel et assure des moyens de subsistance et une sécurité alimentaire aux communautés rurales. Grâce à la collaboration avec de petits exploitants agricoles de la région du Fouta Djallon, en Guinée, l'étude porte sur, comment la diversité et la sélection des variétés locales de fonio ont changé dans la mémoire d'homme. Cette recherche donne un aperçu de la manière dont les changements climatiques et socioculturels affectent la culture des variétés de fonio et d'autres cultures indigènes, et pourquoi elles devraient être conservées et davantage impliquées dans les programmes de développement rural