On 15 December 1868, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Professor of Botany at the University of Munich and director of the Royal Botanic Garden, was carried to his grave in a coffin covered with fresh palm leaves. These were a reference to his groundbreaking "Historia naturalis palmarum: opus tripartitum" (Natural History of Palms: a work in three volumes), published between 1823-1850. At the time, this encyclopedic treasury contained the sum of human knowledge on the topic, and included 240 e...