On The Natural Order of Plants Called Proteaceae - Controversy

Controversy

Shortly after the reading of "On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae", but before it appeared in print, there appeared a publication that started one of the most bitter disputes in 19th century botany. This was On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae, ostensibly by Joseph Knight. Despite the title, this paper contained only 13 pages related to cultivation techniques, but over 100 pages of taxonomic revision. Although not explicitly attributed, it was widely believed, and is still so, that this revision was contributed by Richard Salisbury, who had been present at all four of the meetings at which Brown read his paper. The revision contains many of the plant names that Brown had presented to the Linnean Society; for example, the genera Petrophile, Isopogon and Grevillea. Thus Salisbury beat Brown to print, claiming priority for the names that Brown had authored. Salisbury is also accused of having appropriated some of Brown's observations; for example, in the Linnean Society copy of Knight's paper, where Salisbury says that he suspects that the fruit of Persoonia is unusual, Brown has pencilled in "He suspects it because he listened very attentively to my paper when read at the Linnean Society."

Salisbury was accused of plagiarism and ostracised from botanical circles. Contemporary notes and letters indicate widespread condemnation of Salisbury's actions. For example, Samuel Goodenough wrote "How shocked was I to see Salisbury's surreptitious anticipation of Brown's paper on new Holland plants, under the name and disguise of Mr. Hibbert's gardener! Oh it is too bad!"; and James Edward Smith wrote that he had a copy of Knight's paper "but shall not keep it—I mean hereafter not to notice it or any other of the author's productions." Brown himself wrote of Salisbury "I scarcely know what to think of him except that he stands between a rogue and a fool."

With the passage of time, some dissenting views have emerged. In 1870, Charles Babbington wrote that "Knight's Proteaceae is very curious if the best part of it was really carried away from a Linnean meeting and appropriated by Salisbury to tease R. Brown"; and other authors have since denied Salisbury's involvement. In 1985 David Mabberley offered the following in Salisbury's defence: "If Salisbury was guilty, why did he do it? ... o doubt Salisbury felt that Brown was encroaching on his territory, for he had been writing on, and studying, Proteaceae for some time, and here was the Librarian of Smith's Linnean Society dashing off a paper to get his names into Hortus kewensis, criticizing Salisbury and abandoning some of his names on the way. It seems not inconceivable, therefore, that Salisbury... would have made amendments to Knight's final manuscript in the light of Brown's remarks... and hurried it through the press to defeat the machinations of his enemy."