The Portuguese naturalist Correia da Serra (1751-1823) and his impact on early nineteenth-century botany

This paper focuses on the contributions to natural history, particularly in methods of plant classification of the Portuguese botanist, man of letters , diplomat, and Freemason Abbe Jose Correia da Serra (1751-1823), placing t hem in their national and international political and social contexts. Correia da Serra adopted the natural method of classification championed by the Frenchman Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, and introduced refinements of hi s own that owe much to parallel developments in zoology. He endorsed the vi ew that the classification of plants should be based on the establishment o f affinities rather than of differences. The emphasis on affinities went ha nd in hand with the development of the concept of symmetry. This idea was i ntroduced by Correia da Serra in systematics and was adopted and further de veloped by his friend, Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. Correia da Serra also argued that Cryptogamia reproduce sexually, advocated extension of methods of comparative anatomy from zoology to botany, and applied them to the stud y of fruits. Correia da Serra was one among many of the estrangeirados, Portuguese ``Eur opeanized'' intellectuals who traveled extensively abroad in most cases to escape political or religious persecution at home. The estrangeirados were important contributors to 18th and 19th century European thinking. Most of the estrangeirados were pivotal in the introduction, dissemination and prop agation of the new sciences in Portugal, but unlike most of his fellow estr angeirados, Correia da Serra was also an innovative man of science in his o wn right.