Agnes Arber - Scientific Career - Balfour Laboratory

Balfour Laboratory

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 authoured 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 analysing 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.

Read more about this topic:  Agnes Arber, Scientific Career

Famous quotes containing the word laboratory:

    For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?
    Milan Kundera (b. 1929)