The history of phycology is the history of the scientific study of algae. Human interest in plants as food goes back into the origins of the species, and knowledge of algae can be traced back more than two thousand years. However, only in the last three hundred years has that knowledge evolved into a rapidly developing science.
Early days
The study of botany goes back into pre-history, as plants have been eaten since the beginning of the human race. The first attempts at plant cultivation are believed to have been made shortly before 10,000 BC in Western Asia (Morton, 1981)Morton, A.G. 1981 History of Botanical Science. Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd. and the first references to algae are to be found in early Chinese literature. Records as far back as 3000 BC indicate that algae were used by the emperor of China as food (Huisman, 2000 p. 13).Huisman, J.M. 2000. Marine Plants of Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Australia. The use of Porphyra in China dates back to at least AD 533–544 (Mumfard and Miura, 1988);Mumford, T.F. and Miura, A. 1988. 4. p.87–117. Porphyra as food: cultivation and economics. in Lembi, C.A. and Waaland, J.R. 1988. Algae and Human Affairs. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge there are also references in Roman and Greek literature. The Greek word for algae was phycos whilst in Latin the name became fucus. There are early references to the use of algae for manure. The first coralline algae to be recognized as living organisms were probably Corallina, by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD (Irvine and Chamberlain, 1994 p. 11).Irvine, L.M. and Chamberlain, Y.M. 1994. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1, Rhodophyta Part 2B Corallinales, Hildenbrandiales. Natural History Museum, London.
The classification of plants suffered many changes since Theophrastus (372–287 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC) grouped them as "trees", "shrubs" and "herbs" (Smith, 1955 p. 1).Smith, G.M. 1955. Cryptogamic Botany. Volume 1. Algae and Fungi. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.,
Little is known of botany during the Middle Ages—it was the Dark Ages of botany.
The development of the study of phycology runs in a pattern comparable with, and parallel to, other biological fields but at a different rate. After the invention of the printing-press in the 15th century,Hawksworth, D.L and Seaward, M.R.D. 1977. Lichenology in the British Isles 1568 - 1975 The Richmond Publishing Co. Ltd. education enabled people to read and knowledge to spread.
Exploration of the world and the advance of knowledge
Written accounts of the algae of South Africa were made by the Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries; however, it is not clear to which species they refer. (Huisman, 2000 p. 7)
17th century
In the 17th century, there was a great awakening of scientific interest all over Europe, and after the invention of the printing-press books on botany were published. Among them was the work of John Ray, who wrote in 1660: Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam., this initiated a new era in the study of Botany (Smith, 1975 p. 4).Smith, A.L. 1975. Lichens. The Richmond Publishing Co. Ltd. England Ray "influenced both the theory and the practice of botany more decisively than any other single person in the latter half of the seventeenth century" (Morton, 1981).
However, no real progress was made in the scientific study of algae until the invention of the microscope—in about 1600. It was Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) who discovered bacteria and saw the cell structure of plants. His unsystematic glimpses of plant structure, reported to the Royal Society between 1678 and his death in 1723, produced no significant advances (Morton, 1981 p. 180).
As adventurers explored the world, more species of all animals and plants were discovered; this demanded efforts to bring order out of this quickly accumulating knowledge.
The first Australian marine plant recorded in print was collected from Shark Bay on the Western Australian coast by William Dampier, who described many new species of Australian wildlife in the 17th century (Huisman, 2000 p. 7).
18th century
Before Carl von Linné (or Carl Linnaeus, 1707–1778), animals and plants had names, but it took him to arrange the names and group the Earth's plants into some sort of order. Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, the son of a pastor of the Lutheran church, a physician and zoologist. He laid the foundations of modern biological systematics and nomenclature in his Species Plantarum (1753).Linnaeus, C. 1753 Species plantarum..., 2 vols. Salvius, Stackholm. He adopted and popularized a binomial (or binary) system of designation (Morton, 1981) using one name for the genus and a second name for the species, both in Latin or Latinised. He referred to the specific (species) name as a "trivial" name (nomen triviale). It consisted of a single word, normally a Latin adjective, but any single word would suffice, to identify a particular species, but not intended to describe it. He developed a coherent system for naming organisms and divided the plant kingdom into 25 classes (according to Smith p. 1 and p. 24 according to Dixon, 1973) (Smith, 1955 p. 1),Dixon, P.S. 1973. Biology of the Rhodophyta. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. one of which, the Cryptogamia, included all plants with "concealed" reproductive organs. He divided the Cryptogamia into four orders: Filices (ferns), Musci (mosses), Algae (including lichens and liverworts), and fungi (Smith, 1955 p. 1).
Examination of the reproductive structures had already started. In 1711, R.A.F. de Réaumur gave an account of Fucus in which he noted the two types of external openings in the thallus: the non-sexual cryptostromata (sterile surface cavities) and the conceptacles (fertile cavities, immersed but with a surface opening) containing the sexual organs, which he thought were female flowers. With a lens, he was able to see the oogonoa (the female sex organs) and the antheridia (the male sex organs) within the conceptacles, but he interpreted these as seeds (Morton, 1981 p. 245). Johann Hedwig (1730–1799) provided further evidence of the sexual process in algae, and figured conjugation in Spirogyra (Hedwig) in 1797. He also illustrated Chara (Charales) and identified the antheridia and oogonia as male and female sexual organs (Morton, 1981 p. 323 & 357).
Harvey commented on "...motion, apparently spontaneous, among the seeds at the period of germination. Some found it difficult...to account for these anomalous motions. ...that the seeds becomes (how is not said) a perfect animalcule, which after enjoying an animal existence for a time ceases to live animally, and, reverting to its original nature, gives birth to a vegetable. Thus, this seed was first vegetable, then animal, and then again vegetable,...".Harvey, W.H. 1841. A Manual of the British Algae: London: John van Voorst During the 18th century, there was a stormy controversy as to whether coralline algae were plants or animals. Up to the mid-18th century, coralline algae (and coral animals) were generally treated as plants. By 1768, many, but by no means all authorities, considered them animal. Five years later, Harvey concluded that they were certainly of vegetable material he noted: "The question of the vegetable nature of Corallines, among which the Melobesia take rank, may now be considered as finally set at rest, by the researches of Kützing, Phillipi and Decaisne." (Harvey, 1847, pl. 73).Harvey, W.H. 1847. Phycologia Britannica. Vol. 1, Fasc.13 (plates 73–78) Reeve & Benham, London, London.Woelkerling, Wm. J. 1988 The Coralline Red Algae:... British Museum (Natural History), Oxford University Press.
The first scientific species description of a South African seaweed accepted for most nomenclatural purposes is that of Ecklonia maxima, published in 1757 as Fucus maximus (Stegenga et al., 1997).Stegenga, H., Bolton, J.J. and Anderson, R.J. 1997. Seaweeds of the South African West Coast. Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town.
Knowledge of North American Pacific algae begins with the 1791–95 expedition of Captain George Vancouver (Papenfuss, 1976 p. 21).Papenfuss, G.F. pp.21–46 Landmarks in Pacific North American Marine Phycology in Abbott, I.A. and Hollenberg, G.J. 1976. Marine Algae of California. Stanford University Press, California.
Archibald Menzies (1754–1842) was the appointed botanist on the expedition led by Captain George Vancouver in the ships Discovery and Chatham of 1791–1795 to the Pacific coast of North America and south-western Australia. The algae collected by Menzies were passed to Dawson Turner (1775–1858) who described and illustrated them in a four-volumed work published in 1808–1819. However, Turner only referred to the taxa referable to Fucus; either Menzies collected very few or he gave only a few to Turner. Three of these species described by Turner later became the types of new genera (Papenfuss, 1976) and (Huisman, 2000) Turner also received plants from Robert Brown (1773–1858) the botanist who accompanied Captain Matthew Flinders on the Investigator (1801–1805). This collection also included many plants from Australia (Huisman, 2000).
The real awakening of interest in American algae resulted from a visit by William Henry Harvey in 1849–1850 when he visited areas from Florida to Nova Scotia and produced three volumes of Nereis Boreali-Americana. These gave an incentive to others to study algae (Taylor, 1972 p. 21).Taylor, W.R. 1972 Marine Algae of the Northeastern Coast of North America. Ann Arbor, Mich
The first collector of marine algae in Greenland waters seems to have been J.M.Vahl, who lived in Greenland from 1828 to 1836. Vahl's East Greenland species were not recorded until 1893 when Rosenvinge included them in his work of 1893 together with the species collected by Sylow (Lund, 1959).Lund, S. 1959. The Marine Algae of East Greenland I. Taxonomic part. Meddelelser om Grønland 156: 1–248 F.R.Kjellman records only 12 species from East Greenland, 4 of which are doubtful; these records are based on Zeller's list (Lund, 1959).
Early 19th century
Carl Adolph Agardh was one of the most prominent algologists of all time. He was born in Sweden on 23 January 1785 and died on 28 January 1859. He was Professor of Botany at the University of Lund and later Bishop of Karlstad Diocese (Papenfuss, 1976). Many species still show his name as the authority of the scientific name. He traveled widely in Europe, visiting Germany, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy, and was the first to emphasize the importance of the reproductive characters of algae and use them to distinguish the different genera and families. His son, Jacob Georg Agardh (1813–1901), who became Professor of Botany at Lund in 1839, made a study of the life-histories of algae, described many new genera and species. It was to him that many workers sent specimens for determination and as donations. Because of this, the herbarium at Lund is the most important algal herbarium in the world (Papenfuss, 1976).
The first records of algae from the Faroe Islands were made by Jørgen Landt in his book of 1800, where he mentions about 30 species. Following this, Hans Christian Lyngbye visited the Faroe Islands in 1817 and published his work in 1819. In this, he described several new genera and species, some 100 new species were listed. Emil Rostrup, who visited the Faroe Islands in 1867, listed ten new species and a total not far from 100. In 1895, Herman G. Simmons mentioned 125 species. In that year, F. Børgesen (1866–1956) started work and in 1902, published his work (Børgesen, 1902).Børgesen, F. 1902. Marine algæ (of the Færöes). Botany of the Færöes (ed. E. Warming), Vol. II, pp. 339-532. Part II. Copenhagen