The flora and fauna of the Maltese islands were poorly documented prior to the 19th century. Apart from records by visiting naturalists such as the English botanist John Ray in 1664, the Sicilian Paolo Boccone in the late 17th century and the Swedish naturalist Pehr Forsskal in 1761, the only Maltese scholar to leave writings relating to the Maltese biota before 1800 was the traveller, poet, writer, doctor and naturalist Gian Francesco Buonamico, regarded as the father of Maltese botany.

In 1670, Buonamico wrote four works on Maltese wild plants, including what is now regarded as the first flora of the Maltese islands, entitled Brevis notitia, which listed 144 plants. Unfortunately, Buonamico’s works were never published and remain in manuscript form.

The 18th century saw a turning point in the study of plants and animals with the publication of Carl von Linné’s system of botanical and zoological classification and nomenclature.

Linnaeus (to use his Latinised surname) was a Swedish botanist who published a pamphlet in 1735 entitled Systemae Naturae, in which he explained his ideas of the natural classification of living organisms. He published revised and expanded editions over the years, and by 1768, what started as a 12-page pamphlet had grown into a three-volume work with a total of 2,440 pages.

His writings were to have a profound effect on the future of biological research, with workers like Lamarck, Cuvier and Fabricius enthusiastically observing, collecting and describing new species of plants and animals.

The first Maltese naturalist who emerged in the 19th century was Stefano Zerafa (aka Zerapha). He was born on October 9, 1791, in Għargħur, to Alessio Zerafa and Grazia née Grima. In his childhood, he showed early signs of scholarship and was sent to Valletta to further his studies. After graduating in medicine at the University of Malta, he was appointed professor of medical botany, hygiene and public health between 1829 and 1856, and professor of pathology between 1833 and 1856.

Apart from his medical practice, Zerafa was deeply interested in natural history and took charge of the transfer of the botanic garden from St Elmo Ditch to the Argotti in Floriana. He was primarily a botanist and, in 1827, he started working on a flora of the Maltese islands.

Stefano Zerafa is associated with the discovery and first description of the national plant of Malta, the Maltese rock-centaury

As was the custom in those days, the book was written in Latin; it was entitled Florae Melitensis Thesaurus sive Plantarum enumeratio. It comprised two volumes, the first of which was published in 1827, the second in 1831. The flora included 644 indigenous, ornamental and cultivated plants with descriptions, seasonal occurrence and references to other authors, a list of which was inserted in volume 1. He provided a Maltese name for many species.

Zerafa is associated with the discovery and first description of the national plant of Malta, the Maltese rock-centaury. However, this endemic plant was first collected at Wied Babu in 1825 by Zerafa’s medical colleague Agostino Naudi, who was also a keen collector of wild plants. Naudi passed it on to Zerafa, who named it Centaurea spathulate, and described it in the first volume of his flora.

Owing to the rules of botanical nomenclature, the scientific name was to change several times, the currently accepted name since the year 2000 being Cheirolophus crassifolius. Zerafa did not assign a Maltese name to the plant, which has since come to be known as Widnet il-baħar.

Zerafa and Agostino Naudi collaborated with the Italian Carmelite friar Carlo Giacinto in the latter’s publication of a list of 800 Maltese plants based largely on Naudi’s collection. In 1980, Sicilian botanist Salvatore Brullo described another endemic plant, a species of sea lavender, and named it Limonium zeraphae in honour of the Maltese botanist. Zerafa died on March 2, 1871.

Zerafa was followed in the chair of Natural History at the University of Malta by another medical doctor, Giovanni Carlo Grech Delicata (1811-1882), who also became director of the Argotti Botanic Gardens. He was mostly interested in local flora, and in 1853 published Flora Melitensis sistens stirpes phanerogamas in Melita, dedicated to Zerafa, in which he listed 716 species of flowering plants.

Grech Delicata was also interested in entomology and in meteorology. He was the first to start measuring rainfall scientifically between 1839 and 1841, using a gauge at the Military Hospital, Valletta (formerly the Hospital of the Knights of St John). In 1856, he published a booklet entitled Della quantità d’acqua che cade annualmente in Malta.

The year 1867 saw the publication by University secretary A. A. Caruana of a tome bearing the name of Enumeratio ordinate Molluscorum Gaulo-Melitensium of the late Giuseppe Mamo. Caruana was not a naturalist but had been commissioned by the Society of Archaeology, History and Natural Sciences to write a report based on manuscripts by Giuseppe Mamo concerning his extensive collection of local molluscs.

Mamo was born in Sicily in 1793 but grew up and studied in Malta. He graduated in chemistry at the Royal University of Malta, and during the plague of 1813 was the chemist of the Quarantine Hospital at Lazzaretto. He was offered the post of professor of natural sciences at the university but he refused the offer.

Mamo was passionate about conchology and amassed a collection comprising over 400 species of both marine and terrestrial shells found in the Maltese islands. The list included several species new to science. In 1861, Gavino Gulia described a new form of an endemic door-snail which he named after Giuseppe Mamo, Muticaria macrostoma var. mamotica (Mamo’s Door-Snail, M. Dussies ta’ Għawdex). This land-snail is endemic to Munxar, Gozo, and is listed in the IUCN Red List as “near threatened”.

Mamo is considered the father of Maltese conchology. He died in 1865, and two years after his death, A.A. Caruana was commissioned to prepare the report on Mamo’s collection referred to above.

A close associate of Zerafa, Grech Delicata and Mamo was Antonio Schembri, who was to become known as the father of Maltese ornithology. He was born on April 10, 1813, during the plague epidemic, which he fortunately survived.

Schembri was a man of many talents, among which was a keen interest in the natural sciences, particularly ornithology and entomology. His early studies of Malta’s birds were influenced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Napoleon’s nephew), and indeed he kept up a correspondence with him throughout his life.

Schembri’s most important contributions are his three publications on Malta’s birds, chief among which is his Catalogo Ornitologico del Gruppo di Malta, in which he listed 229 species of wild birds.

Schembri was also interested in the Diptera (flies) found in Malta, and together with the above-mentioned Grech Delicata sent dipteran specimens to two renowned entomologists, the Italian Camillo Rondani and the Swede Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt, who included them in their publications. Schembri’s collection of Diptera was donated to the Museum of Naples. Schembri died on December 7, 1872.

In the second half of the 19th century, two prominent Maltese naturalists were Gavino Gulia and his son Giovanni. Gavino Gulia was born on June 18, 1835, in Cospicua. He graduated in medicine at the University of Malta and completed his studies in Paris. In 1880, he succeeded Grech Delicata as professor of forensic medicine and natural history at the university.

His first scientific publication in 1855 was Repertorio Botanico Maltese, in which local plants were listed alphabetically according to their Maltese names, together with details of their natural history. Two years later, at the invitation of the Governor, Sir William Reid, he delivered a series of lectures on entomology at San Anton Palace which were later published as Corso elementare di entomologia Maltese data nel Palazzo di San Antonio.

Gulia Sr founded the scientific journal Il Barth, a review of medical and natural sciences first issued in July 1871; it featured articles by Gulia himself on local invertebrates, notably on molluscs. Il Barth ceased publication in 1877. Gavino Gulia died from blood poisoning on Christmas Eve 1889.

Gavino’s only son Giovanni was born on February 11, 1864, and graduated in medicine in 1886. He was district medical officer in Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Valletta. Giovanni inherited his father’s passion for the study of natural history; he was mainly interested in geology, botany, zoology and ornithology. His many writings included papers in English, French, Italian and Maltese. Like his father, Giovanni founded a scientific journal, Il Naturalista Maltese – Rivista di scienze naturali, in June 1890. It was, however, short-lived, ceasing publication after just five issues in October 1890.

His major work was Il Prontuario di Storia Naturale Maltese published in 1890, but his prolific publications included papers on fossils, plants, invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. Unfortunately, Giovanni’s life was cut short on January 22, 1918, when the merchant ship he was serving on as a surgeon during World War I was sunk by a mutinous crew in Alexandria, Egypt, while he was asleep in his cabin.

There are detailed biographies of the Gulias in the publication by Michael Galea, Pioneers of Maltese Natural History – Gavino and Giovanni Gulia.

The study of Malta’s natural heritage by these 19th-century naturalists was continued in the 20th century by scientific stalwarts such as Count Alfredo Caruana Gatto, Giuseppe Despott, John and Paul Borg, Carmelo De Lucca, Anthony Valletta and Guido Lanfranco, among others. It is to these dedicated naturalists that Malta owes the current state of knowledge of its surprisingly rich biodiversity.

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to John J. Borg of the National Museum of Natural History and Stephen Mifsud (maltawildplants.com) for permission to use their photographs.