Species Caesalpinia pearsonii

For Andrea Cesalpino (Latinised as Andreas Cæsalpinus) (1519–1603), noted Italian botanist, philosopher and physician to Pope Clement VIII. He was a professor of medicine and botany at Pisa and Rome, praefectus of the first botanical garden of Pisa and founder of the second. He was a forerunner of Linnaeus, having recognised the sexual aspect of plants, which he classified by their fruits or seed, rather than alphabetically or by medicinal properties. He also did some physiological work and wrongly envisioned a ‘chemical circulation’ consisting of repeated condensation and evaporation of blood. His work predated that of the English physician William Harvey (1578–1657), who discovered the concept of the ‘physical circulation’ of blood.