Erasmus Darwin was a British physician, scientist, inventor and poet who originated the ideas of natural selection and photosynthesis. He published Zoonomia after 20 years of remaining silent due to public censure. His grandson Charles would further these ideas in On the Origin of Species. Phytologia, a seminal book on plant science, detailed photosynthesis and identified essential plant nutrients. His final book traced the evolution of life from the microscopic to humankind.