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ALPINI, PROSPERO (PROSPER ALPINUS)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 737 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALPINI, PROSPERO (PROSPER ALPINUS) , 1553-1617, See also:Italian physician and botanist, was See also:born at Marostica, in the See also:republic of See also:Venice, on the 23rd of See also:November 1553. In his youth he served for a See also:time in the Milanese See also:army, but in 1574 he went to study See also:medicine at See also:Padua. After taking his See also:doctor's degree in 1578, he settled as a physician in Campo See also:San Pietro, a small See also:town in the Paduan territory. But his tastes were botanical, and to extend his knowledge of See also:exotic See also:plants he travelled to See also:Egypt in 158o as physician to See also:George Emo or Hemi, the Venetian See also:consul in See also:Cairo. In Egypt he spent three years, and from a practice in the management of date-trees, which he observed in that See also:country, he seems to have deduced the See also:doctrine of the sexual difference of plants, which was adopted as the See also:foundation of the Linnaean See also:system. He says that " the See also:female date-trees or palms do not See also:bear See also:fruit unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath or male See also:flowers is sprinkled over the female flowers." On his return, he resided for some time at See also:Genoa as physician to See also:Andrea See also:Doria, and in 1593 he was appointed See also:professor of See also:botany at Padua, where he died on the 6th of See also:February 1617. He was succeeded in the botanical See also:chair by his son Alpine Alpini (d. 1637). His best-known See also:work is De Plantis Aegypti See also:liber (Venice, 1592). His De Medicina Egyptiorum (Venice, 1591) is said to contain the first See also:account of the See also:coffee plant published in See also:Europe. The genus Alpinia, belonging to the See also:order Zingiberaceae, was named after him by See also:Linnaeus.

End of Article: ALPINI, PROSPERO (PROSPER ALPINUS)

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