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纪念胡先骕（5）及古植物学的故事（4）：胡先骕与中国古植物学的
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古植物学的故事（4）：胡先骕与中国古植物学的兴起
发表于 2009-8-29 22:47:21
古植物学；胡先骕；中国古植物学；兴起
The rise of Chinese palaeobotany emphasizing the global context
----Botanists’ efforts to promote the development of Chinese palaeobotany (by Qigao Sun)
Fig.3. Hu Hsen–Hsu (Hu Xian–Su, 1894–1968) (Courtesy Hu Shi)
Although few Chinese botanists worked on fossil plants in the first half of the last century, Hu Hsen–Hsu (Hu Xian–Su, 1894–1968), who was a distinguished plant taxonomist in China, had a strong interest in palaeobotany. Hu thought that palaeobotany was an important subject within plant science. Hu’s ideas were closely related to his Berkley and Harvard education background in the USA. He studied Chinese Tertiary plants and those of the living fossil Metasequoia. Hu not only advanced plant taxonomy, but also contributed to the overall development of palaeobotanical studies in China (Shi & Yang, 1998).
Hu was sent to the University of California at Berkley to study botany in 1912 and got his B. Sc. degree in 1916. He went to Harvard University to study plant taxonomy in 1923 and received his Ph.D. degree in 1925. Thus Hu had wide contact with the world botanists and palaeobotanists of his time. Hu was greatly influenced by the scientific ideas of Asa Gray (1810–1888), father of American botany, who pointed out the significance of the phyto–geographical relationship between eastern North America and eastern Asia (Gray, 1840, 1859, 1878; Boufford & Spongberg, 1983). Hu developed a deep interest both in recent plants and in fossil plants from China, which might provide very important evidence for the Tertiary history of plants in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hu founded the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing （formerly Fan Memorial Institute of Biology） in 1928, and the Botanical Society of China in 1933. He established several English journals in China for plant sciences and played a great role in the history of plant sciences in China (including the subject of palaeobotany) during the 20th century. Hu made great efforts to establish botanical organizations in China, which would provide potential for the further development of Chinese palaeobotany.
In the 1930s Hu conducted successful collaborative work with American palaeobotanist Professor R.W. Chaney with regard to Chinese Tertiary plants. Just before the Chinese-Japanese War, R.W. Chaney was invited to China for the second time. He went on a field trip to a very famous fossil locality, Shanwang locality in Linqu County, Shandong Province in June 1937 and collected many specimens of fossil plants. Some specimens were transported to the USA and kept in Berkley. Hu and Chaney (1940) co-worked on this Middle Miocene-aged Shanwang flora from Shandong and published an English monograph, which is undoubtedly the pioneering research on Tertiary floras in China (Sun et al., 2000, 2002).
Metasequoia Story
During the 1940s Hu and his colleagues made a great contribution to the studies of recent and fossil Metasequoia (Hu, 1946; Hu & Cheng, 1948). The publication of the living fossil of Metasequoia was one of the greatest discoveries in the botanical and palaeobotanical community in the world and stimulated the development of Chinese palaeobotany in the last century. Miki (1941) established the genus Metasequoia based on the Pliocene fossils from Japan and thought that the genus was extinct. It is said that in October 1941 Professor Gan Tuo saw a big tree (about 30m high) under which there was a small temple named “Shui–Sha–Miao” in Mao–tao–chi in Wan Hsien, Sichuan Province (currently in Lichuan County, western Hubei Province). It is also said that Gan collected some specimens from the tree but without any further scientific results.
In 1943, Wang Zhan (1911—2000) collected specimens from the same big tree at Mao–tao–chi and considered them to be those of Glyptostrobus pensilis (Staunton) K. Koch (Shao et al., 2000; Ma, 2003). Cheng Wan–Chun (1904—1983) didn’t think that the tree was Glyptostrobus, but a new genus of conifer. In 1946 Xue Ji–Ru (1921—1999) also collected specimens of living Metasequoia from Mao–tao–chi. Cheng posted some specimens of the strange tree to Hu Hsen–Hsu.
On May 9, 1946 Hu wrote to Professor R.W. Chaney and told him about the exciting discovery of the living fossil plant Metasequoia. On September 28, 1946 R.W. Chaney talked about the discovery at the annual meeting of Botanical Society of America. In December 1946 Hu published a paper, entitled “Notes on a Palaeogene species of Metasequoia in China,” and mentioned that he would discuss in another paper a living species of Metasequoia. Hu thought that the plant was the fossil genus Metasequoia established by S. Miki in 1941. At last, Hu and Cheng published their paper about Metasequoia glyptostobodies Hu et Cheng in 1948. The living species of the genus Metasequoia, is not extinct but still survives on the Earth. So far, plants of the living fossil Metasequoia have been introduced into many countries in the Northern Hemisphere. For the detailed information about the discovery of living Metasequoia, please refer to Ma’ s (2003) article.
[节选自：Sun Q.G., 2005. The rise of Chinese palaeobotany emphasizing the global context.
In: Bowden, A.J., Burek, C.V. & Wilding, R. (eds) History of Palaeobotany: Selected Essay. London: Geological Society, Special Publications, 241:293-298 ](revised version)
In: Bowden, A.J., Burek, C.V. & Wilding, R. (eds) History of Palaeobotany: Selected Essay. London: Geological Society, Special Publications, 241:293-298 ](revised version)
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