From Plant Press, Vol. 18, No. 4, October 2015.
By Judith Knight
A new illustrated facsimile of the first edition of Estudios Para La Flora de Puerto Rico (Studies of the Flora of Puerto Rico), written by Agustin Stahl from 1883 to 1888, presents for the first time 390 of the author’s botanical watercolors in their intended context: printed alongside the original text. Estudios, which is the earliest scientifically rigorous treatment of Puerto Rico’s flora, was originally published without the illustrations during Stahl’s lifetime due to lack of support and funding.
The new three-volume edition, published by the Smithsonian Institution, was compiled and annotated with updated nomenclature by Curator Pedro Acevedo, marking the culmination of over a decade of research and painstaking digital restoration work on hundreds of scanned images of Stahl’s original watercolors. These works are currently housed at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in San Juan. Many are poorly conserved and are rapidly deteriorating. The Atherton Seidell Endowment Fund of the Smithsonian Institution generously provided financial support for the publication of this rare book, complete with surviving illustrations, in both hard copy and digital formats (the latter will be available through the Department of Botany website).
Stahl (1842 – 1917) was Puerto Rico’s most significant botanist of the 19th century. A medical doctor and prolific scholar, he combined his profession with the study of natural history, researching, collecting, and illustrating specimens from around the island, as well as raising public awareness of botany as an educator. His academic contributions, which were written in Spanish and therefore accessible to local readers, provided a catalyst for Puerto Rico to develop a sense of pride and responsibility for its natural and cultural heritage. According to Acevedo, the Estudios marked “the beginning of a scholarly journey that has resulted in Puerto Rico currently being one of the better known Floras of the region, if not worldwide.”
Stahl wrote and published his Estudios based on the study of plants in their natural environment for which he produced copious watercolors. His analyses and descriptions are scientifically rigorous and verifiable. His work was based on the criteria of previous and contemporary botanists and followed the widely accepted classification system of the time: de Candolle, with the exception of re-positioning certain families. He also documented the distribution, the timing of flowering and fruiting of species, and the local names of many Puerto Rican plants.
Despite the significance of the first edition of Stahl’s Estudios, knowledge of the book and Stahl’s contributions were effectively lost in time due to the book’s rarity and the fact that this work was never finished in its entirety. Forty years after his publication, his work was superseded by that of Nathaniel L. Britton and Percy Wilson from the New York Botanical Garden. However, Stahl’s work remains relevant and important to botanical research as it refers to early representations of the Puerto Rican flora, including the recording of introduced plants, the economic importance of the local flora, and a general ecological assessment of the island. Stahl reported for the first time the occurrence of several plant species, including his description of a new species Clusia gundlachii. Some of these species have not been collected on the island since, such as Malanea glabra, Psychotria officinalis, and Schultesia brachyptera. As most of his original collections were destroyed, the watercolors are in many cases, the only surviving original material on which Stahl based his floristic studies. They remain integral and essential for the ongoing interpretation of his Estudios.
Volume One of the new illustrated edition includes an introductory section, prior to the facsimile, written in both Spanish and English, which provides valuable contextual and historical information on Stahl and the setting in which he produced his Estudios, with supporting photographic images, and further chronological information provided in the appendix. In the prologue, Dr. Ariel E. Lugo, renowned ecologist and Director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (Puerto Rico), emphasizes Stahl’s worldwide credibility and important scientific contributions. In “Notes towards a biography of Agustin Stahl” Dr. Eduardo Rodríguez explores Stahl’s career and his contributions to many other academic disciplines. This is followed by a detailed essay written by Dr. Acevedo on “Stahl and the Botany of Puerto Rico”– a fascinating historical and botanical analysis of Stahl’s work including: the contemporary academic and local milieu, Stahl’s expeditions and scientific methodology, his collections and watercolors, challenges encountered in the production and the reception of his Estudios; and the processes by which the new annotated and illustrated edition came to fruition.
As the original first edition of Estudios was published in six fascicles, the new facsimile edition maintains the original pagination presenting two fascicles per volume. Stahl’s illustrations of represented species (identified and numbered) are provided as color plates at the end of each volume. Descriptions are directly linked with the relevant illustrations and nomenclature of species updated through the use of footnotes provided below the original text. In addition, there are useful summaries presented as appendices including a synopsis of plants described in Estudios, nomenclatural types based on Stahl’s collections, a list of the watercolors, updated scientific names, and indexes of common and scientific names.
In his lifetime, Agustin Stahl reportedly expressed his ambition for his watercolors to be used by the Smithsonian, as evidenced through a report compiled in 1899 by the special commissioner Henry K. Carroll to the President of the United States on the conditions of the island of Puerto Rico:
Dr. Stahl, who has made numerous and careful studies in the natural history of Porto Rico, with admirable illustrative drawings in colors, very kindly furnished the commissioner with the following brief survey of the subject [La fauna y la flora de Puerto Rico, Stahl, 1899]. His ambition is to be permitted to complete his most important work and present it to the Government at Washington for the use of the Smithsonian Institution. He does not ask compensation for his work – simply support while he is completing it, which would, I am assured, take no long time.
Over a century later, this Smithsonian publication both fulfills Stahl’s request and honors his legacy through restoring, updating, and printing this critical contribution to the history and development of Botany and the study of Natural Sciences in Puerto Rico.
Hello:
And congratulations for the timely publication of Agustin Stahl's great works in this beautiful facsimile edition.
I would like to purchase a set and have it sent to my address in Puerto Rico.
Is that possible?
What do I need to do to accomplish that purchase?
Thank you in advance for your kind response to my petition.
Posted by: Juan Carlos Roman | 01/25/2016 at 10:40 PM