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Who was Parkinson?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

August 15, 2003

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According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, the common name, breadfruit, first appeared in print in the English language in 1697. In most European languages, the fruit is called by names which have the same meaning: in Dutch, broodvrucht; in French, fruit a pain; in Portuguese, fruta pao, and in Spanish, fruta de pan. It is said when the fruit is roasted and pulled from the coals, it looks like a loaf of bread.

In August 1768, Joseph Banks and party boarded the HMS Endeavor joining Captain James Cook's first voyage of exploration. Banks hired two artists to record their discoveries, Sydney C. Parkinson to do the botanical renderings and Alexander Buchan to paint the scenes. Parkinson and Buchan became close friends. Buchan died in Tahiti and Parkinson undertook the work of two artists. ("The Endeavor", Captain Cook Society)

Plant of the Week 08/11/2003

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg)
Plant of the Week 08/11/2003

Among the 280 completed paintings and 900 drawings, Parkinson illustrated, described, and named the breadfruit, Sitodium altile, from the Greek, sitos meaning food and altilis, rich, nourishing. ("Artocarpus altilis", w3Tropicos Nomenclatural Data Base, Missouri Botanical Garden)

Parkinson died at age 26 of a fever on the return to England. The botanical name, Sitodium altile, was published two years later. Other than his fabulous paintings and illustrations, Parkinson almost passed out of history.

By the time the name was published, Cook's second voyage was underway. This time there were two ships, the HMS Resolution and the Adventure. Aboard were a father and son team of botanists, Johann Reinhold Forster and J. Georg Adam Forster. They established the genus Artocarpus building the name from the Greek, artos, bread, and karpos, fruit. ("The Resolution", Captain Cook Society)

One hundred and seventy years would pass. Breadfruit would receive 14 botanical names in the intervening years. In 1941, F. Raymond Fosberg realized Parkinson's original name had validity and restored the species epithet. The plant became Artocarpus altilis--breadfruit, rich and nourishing.

PlantExplorers has a wonderful biography of the almost forgotten Sydney Parkinson. To learn more about his work and Captain Cook's first voyage, click on the link:

http://www.plantexplorers.com/explorers/botanical-artists/sydney-parkinson.htm

PlantExplorers.com is a great website. Use the navigation at the top and take some time to peruse this website.

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