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Author(s)

Main author

Professor Dr. Victor Jacob (V.J.) Koningsberger was born on the 10th of February, 1895 in Buitenzorg, the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Bogor, Indonesia) and passed away on the 28th of February, 1966 in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. In his early career (1924), Koningsberger was a member of the Sugar Experiment Station in Java, Indonesia, where he eventually became the director of its agriculture department. In 1934 he was nominated professor in plant physiology at the University of Utrecht in succession to his teacher Friedrich August Ferdinand Christian (F.A.F.C.) Went. Apart from his profession, he was part of different institutes and academies; through his role as president of the biological council, he prevented Biology from being removed from the final examinations of Dutch high schools. He also served as president of the Royal Institute of Tropics in Amsterdam and vice-president of the science division of the Royal Academy of the Netherlands.

Co-authors

Johannes Cornelis Schoute (1877-1942)

As a professor at the University of Groningen and morphologist, Schoute is known for various works, including volume 5 of "Dichotomy and Lateral Branching in the Pteropsida". Before being appointed professor in Groningen, he also worked as a botanist at a station for seed testing in Wageningen and as a professor in Gouda in the early 1900s.

Gerrit Van Iterson Junior (1878-1972)

He was a professor at the technical university in Delft (TU Delft), where he also studied at the Department of Chemical Engineering. He studied both chemistry and microbiology. For his PhD thesis research he came up with a mathematical theory for leaf growth. Furthermore, he also founded the TU Delft botanical garden and became a member at the Royal Dutch Academy of Botanical Sciences in 1918. He eventually retired in 1948.

E.C. Wassink

He was a professor at the plant physiology department at the University of Agriculture in Wageningen from 1947-1974. He is known for various works including "Efficiency of Light Energy Conversion in Plant Growth" and "Chlorophyll Fluorescence and Photosynthesis".

Albert Jan Kluyver (1888-1956)

Having obtained a degree in chemical engineering at TU Delft in 1910, Kluyver worked as an assistant professor at the university's Botany laboratory at which time he also worked on his thesis on biochemical sugar determinations, published in 1914. After leaving to the Dutch East Indies, he returned to TU Delft in 1922, where he became part of the chair of general and applied microbiology. Upon his investigation of Acetobacter suboxydans, Kluyver found that most metabolic processes can be reduced to the principle of gradual oxidation, which he then applied to his studies on alcoholic fermentation, phosphorylation, and assimilatory processes.

Laurens Gerhard Marinus Baas Becking (1895-1963)

Initially having studied chemical engineering at TU Delft, Becking decided to switch his field of study to Biology, which he studied in Utrecht in 1919. Subsequently, in 1921, he obtained his PhD at Stanford University, where he became a Biology professor. He is known for his book titled "Geobiologie of Inleiding tot de Milieukunde".

Henrik Gerard Bungenberg de Jong (1893-1977)

As a professor at the University of Leiden for 25 years, de Jong worked on studies regarding coacervation. Initially having been a Biology student, he changed his field of study to Chemistry, obtaining his PhD in 1921. In 1926, he became the chair of the medical chemistry board in Leiden. Through his interdisciplinary science background, de Jong influenced the field of physical chemistry at the interface of chemistry and biology.

Prof. Dr. Willem Hendrik Arisz (1888-1975)

Having been born there, Arisz studied Biology at the University of Utrecht as his main field of study. For his PhD, Arisz did research on phototropism and geotropism. After obtaining his pHD, Arisz became an assistant professor in Delft. Then, in 1925 he became professor in plant physiology at the University of Groningen.

Prof. Dr. J.A. Honing (1880-1950)

Honing was the director at the agricultural college in Wageningen, where he gave a speech titled "Erfelijkheid en Samenleving" on the college's 16th year of existence.

Prof. Dr. Theodoor Jan Stomps (1885-1973)

Having studied Biology at the University of Amsterdam, Stomps wrote his thesis on synapsis in Spinacia oreacea L as his main field was genetics. In 1907, Stomps became Hugo de Vries's assistant. He later went on to become lecturer in systematic botany and eventually became a professor in systematic botany in succession to his assistant. He was also the director at the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam.

Prof Dr. Theodorus Weevers (1875-1952)

Weevers is known for his work "Het Leven der Planten" (English: The Life of Plants). He was also the chairman of the Dutch Botanical Association.

Prof. Dr. E Reinders

As the main editor-in-chief of the second edition of the Textbook of General Botany, Reinders also collaborated on a book about Botany in the Netherlands, in which he wrote a section titled "The Botanical Laboratory".

Origin

Predecessors and their Influence

This textbook was written in commemoration of a selection of Dutch botanists that influenced the authors, stated in the preface as "Dit boek wordt door de schrijvers opgedragen aan de nagedachtenis van hun leermeesters en voorgangers, de Nederlandsche botanici: M.W. Beijerinck, J.W. Moll, Melchior Treub, Hugo de Vries, F.A.F.C Went" (English: This book is written by the authors in memory of their teachers and predecessors, the Dutch botanists: M.W. Beijerinck, J.W. Moll, Melchior Treub, Hugo de Vries, F.A.F.C Went).

Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851-1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and founder of the School of Microbiology in Delft, where he was also the first microbiology professor at Delft University. He is reported as the first person to have used the term virus for the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) and invented enrichment culturing, a selective culture technique. Through this technique and his research on "the heredity and variability of microorganisms", he is said to have contributed to knowledge on the diversity of microbial life.He was a predecessor to Prof. Dr. Gerrit Van Iterson Junior, professor of applied botany, who was one of his students. Under the support of Beijerinck, Van Iterson founded the botanical garden at Delft University.In the textbook of general botany, Van Iterson wrote a chapter on the structure of cell walls and other deposits of the protoplasm (Vol. 2, Ch.8).

In succession, a pupil of Van Iterson, Albert Jan Kluyver, became the second professor of Microbiology at Delft University. Kluyver was skilled as a chemist and was appointed to the chair of General and Applied Microbiology, a position which was vacated by Beijerinck upon his retirement, at the university. He was initially thought by some to lack sufficient training to lead this department due to his main field of practice being chemistry. Nevertheless, through this position, Kluyver used Beijerinck's research on microbial diversity as a foundation to create and apply what is known as "the coherent programme". This chemically based microbial physiology research programme recognized the "chemical unity of all living organisms", referred to as biochemical unity.As a result of this and his efforts in creating a research group that focused on understanding his idea, Kluyver's concept of biochemical unity became internationally recognized in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In volume 2 of the Textbook of General Botany, Kluyver wrote 7 chapters, covering biochemistry related topics such as oxidative dissimilation and dissimilatory metabolism.

Jan Willem (J.W.) Moll (1851-1933), a botany professor at the University of Groningen, is known for his work "Phytography as a Fine Art". His deteriorating eyesight and hearing in the later stages of his life impeded him from finishing the final revisions of his work. For this reason his successor, Johannes Cornelius (J.C.) Schoute (1877-1942), took care of this. Schoute's acquaintance with Moll from the time he was a child is said to have eventually developed into a friendship, described in a eulogy to Schoute as "een warme vriendschap heeft hen tot den dood van Prof. Moll verbonden" (English: a warm friendship united them until the death of Prof. Moll). This relationship is thought by some to have influenced Schoute's choice to pursue botany as a field of study. Schoute also expresses his thanks for Prof. Moll in the preface of "Phytography as a Fine Art", writing "this was a welcome opportunity to render a certain service to the man to whom I owe more than I can express". In 1917, upon Moll's resignation due to his eye disease, Schoute replaced his position as professor at the University of Groningen. With this position, Schoute put efforts into establishing the first chair of genetics in Groningen in 1919. As part of the botanical community in the Netherlands, he also took on the role of secretary and, eventually, chairman of the board of the "Koninklijke Nederlandse Botanische Vereniging" (English: Royal Dutch Botanical Association), where he became an honorary member. In 1935, Schoute was unexpectedly called upon to be president of the International Botanical Congress due to the passing of Prof. Went, who was initially in charge.

Further context

German Occupation in the Netherlands

As it was published in 1942, this textbook was written in the years leading up to and during the second world war (1940-1945), a time at which the Netherlands was under German occupation.

The International Botanical Congress

Held every 5-6 years, this series of meetings, comprised of delegates of botanical institutions, societies and academies, and international committees, passed resolutions on topics such as scientific nomenclature. As a division of the International Union of Biological Sciences, the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) is responsible in upkeeping the ongoing tradition of this congress, which is held in a different country each time it takes place. In 1935, for instance, after approval by the Dutch government, Professors Went and Schoute invited the sixth international botanical congress to take place in the Netherlands. As exemplified by the fifth congress, resolutions as such were passed: (include screenshots)

Reception

The way in which the field divisions of "bijzondere plantkunde" (English: special botany) and "algemeene plantkunde" (English: general botany)(include link to definitions of the two) were differentiated from one another, originally discussed in "Leerboek der Algemeene Plantkunde", was cited in a speech entitled "Fundamentele Vragen van de Bijzondere Plantkunde en Plantengeografie" (English:Fundamental Questions about Special Botany and Plantgeography), given by Dr. Joseph Lanjouw at the University of Utrecht in 1949. Through this speech, Lanjouw, former student of Went and secretary at the International Union of Biological Sciences, discusses where he thinks the line between special and general botany should be drawn. As apparent by his speech, the audience comprised other scientists well known in the fields of general botany and genetics. He refers to one of them, saying "ik denk ook dat mijn collega voor de algemeene plantkunde ernstige bezwaren zou maken indien ik datgene van de plantenphysiologie dat zeker niet algemeen is te noemen, voor mijzelf zou gaan opeisen" (English: "I also think that my colleague of general botany would have serious objections to my claiming plant physiology, which definitely does not count as general botany").