Cooperation among scientists: some guidelines for the study of botanic collectivities

Abstract

The work of botanists, their writing, and herbal materials provide excellent examples to understand the creation of local working networks. The results of botanic work provide a satisfactory set of documents for the construction of “groups of collaborators”. Analysis of the indications they supply allow for a quite thorough understanding of the relationships among botanists, as well as interesting data on the sphere of collaborators of the investigated researcher. In the present study, we approach two concrete examples, both being mycologists: Blas Lázaro Ibiza (1858-1921), first professor of descriptive botany at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Central University of Madrid, and Augustine Luis M. Unamuno Irigoyen (1873-1943), director of the mycology section of the Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid.