Belgian botany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: from plant hunting to nascent nature conservation

Abstract The activities and archives of the Société royale de Botanique de Belgique are a rich source of information about the early decades of conservation in Belgium. In the second half of the nineteenth century botanists witnessed important changes in the landscape that also affected botanical diversity. As plant hunters they could have a real impact on the populations of rare plant species. In the final years of the nineteenth century a new generation of botanists added proposals for practical nature conservation in the form of nature reserves to the lamentations about the loss of beauty a... Mehr ...