Flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands English / Spanish
The Botanical Legacy of Agustín Stahlby P. Acevedo-Rodrguez Dr.
Agustín Stahl (1842-1917) is the earliest renowned Puerto Rican
scientist. He worked in numerous disciplines of the natural
sciences including, agriculture, archaeology, botany, ethnology,
medicine, and zoology. He was responsible for writing the first
full-fledged flora of Puerto Rico, "Estudios sobre la flora de
Puerto Rico" published from 1883-88 in 6 fascicles that covered
all the dicotyledons known to him to occur on the island. His
flora is concise and precise, with numerous comments on
botanical concepts by his predecessors and contemporaneous
botanists. However, his flora was never finished as his
treatment for the monocotyledons and the approximately 720
watercolors prepared for it were never published. Although Stahl
based his descriptions chiefly on live plants, he collected
approximately 1,330 plant collections (with several duplicates)
dating from 1882 to 1889. His collect