The Cycad Botanists

DENNIS WM. STEVENSON was born in rural Ohio in 1942 and raised on a farm. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Ohio State University. As a senior student, he met Dr Knut Norstog who introduced him to the field of cycad biology. In 1975, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of California at Davis. From there he spent four years at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden as a Harvard University Fellow, interspersed with a year as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. From 1980 to 1987 he was on the faculty at Barnard College of Columbia University, after which he joined the staff of the New York Botanical Garden, a position he held for over 35 years. He has published extensively in the areas of cycad palaeobotany, reproductive biology, anatomy, cytology, molecular systematics and genomics, as well as compiling taxonomic monographs on cycads for various floras. He has been responsible for raising major funding for projects in plant molecular systematics, and plant genomics. He has published over 400 papers in scientific and journals with 170 of those on cycads, edited four volumes on cycad biology and co-authored a textbook entitled "Plant Anatomy: An Applied Approach" and has been the editor of Botanical Review for 30 years. He has conducted extensive field work studies and has been a member of the IUCN's Cycad Specialist Group since its inception and has been actively involved with each of the International Conferences on Cycad Biology.

ROY OSBORNE was born in London, England, in 1944. He was schooled in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, before studying botany and chemistry at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, during which time he first became acquainted with cycads in theory and in habitat. He continued with postgraduate studies in natural products chemistry at the University of kwaZulu-Natal in Durban, and in botany at the Pietermaritzburg campus of the same institution. In 1984, he discovered, characterized and named the triterpenoid compound, jessic acid, from the Zimbabwean tree Combretum eleagnoides. His Ph.D. thesis, completed in 1988, relates to cycad culture and phytochemistry. From 1979-1995, Roy lectured in the Faculties of Architecture, Engineering, Medicine and Science at the University of kwaZulu-Natal. He served on the Board of Durban Botanic Gardens and was founder and first President of the

Cycad Society of South Africa. Roy and his family emigrated to Australia in 1996 where he joined a scientific arm of Queensland Government. He has published over 200 papers in scientific and popular journals and is co-author of "Cycads of Australia" (2001) and "Cycads of Vietnam" (2007). He is a long-serving member of the IUCN's Cycad Specialist Group and has been involved with many of the International Conferences on Cycad Biology.

Introduction.- Preface.- Acknowledgements.- 1. Introduction.- 2. 17th Century.- Rheede, Hendrik Adriaan Van 1636-1691.- Rumphius, Georg Everhard 1627-1702.- 3. 18th Century.- Banks, Joseph 1743-1820.- von Jacquin, Nicolaus Joseph 1727-1817.- Linnaeus, Carolus 1707-1778 and Linnaeus filius, Carlos 1741-1783.- Mutis, José Celestino Bruno 1732-1808.- Thunberg, Carl Peter 1743-1828.- 4. Early 19th Century.- Brongniart, Adolphe-Théodore 1801-1876.- Brown, Robert 1773-1858.- Lehmann, Johann Georg Christian 1792-1860.- Miquel, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm 1811-1871.- Seemann, Berthold Carl 1825-1871.- Warszewicz, Józef 1812-1866.- Willdenow, Carl Ludwig 1765-1812.- 5. Late 19th Century.- Braun, Alexander Karl Heinrich 1805-1877.- Bull, William 1828-1902.- de Candolle, Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus 1806-1893.- Eichler, August Wilhelm 1839-1887 and Pilger, Robert Knuds Friedrich 1876-1953.- Hooker, William Jackson 1785-1865 and Hooker, Joseph Dalton 1817-1911.- Lemaire, Charles Antoine 1800-1871.- Linden, Jean Jules 1817-1898 and Linden, Lucien Charles Antoine 1853-1940.- Moore, Charles 1820-1905.- Moore, Thomas 1821-1887.- von Mueller, Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich 1825-1896.- von Regel, Eduard August 1815-1892.- Roezl, Benedikt 1824-1885.- Thiselton-Dyer, William Turner 1843-1928.- Wallis, Gustav 1830-1878.- 6. Early 20th Century.- Chamberlain, Charles Joseph 1863-1943.- Hutchinson, John 1884-1972.- Prain, David 1857-1944.- Stapf, Otto 1857-1933 and Davy, Joseph Burtt 1870-1940.- Wood, John Medley 1827-1915.- 7. Contemporary.- Califano, Luigi 1901-1976.- De Luca, Paolo 1944-2021.- Dyer, Robert Allen 1900-1987 and Verdoorn, Inez Clare 1896-1989.- Giddy, Cynthia 1933-1998.- Grobbelaar, Nathanaël (Nat) 1928-2015.- Hill, Kenneth (Ken) David 1948-2010.- Johnson, Lawrence (Lawrie) Alexander Sidney 1925-1997).- Leandri, Jacques Désiré 1903-1982.- Maconochie, John Richard 1941-1984.- Melville, Ronald 1903-1985.- Norstog, Knut Jon 1921-2003.- Pant, Divya Darshan 1919-2001.- Sabato, Sergio 1941-1991.- Sacks, Oliver Wolf 1933-2015.- Schuster, Julius 1886-1949.- Whitelock, Loran Martin 1930-2014.- About the authors.- Index.