34 Dr. SurTH's Introductory Difcourfe. 
‘up his firft opinion on that fubje&, merit great commendation, as 
well as his inveftigations of inteftinal animalcula. Vallifneri was 
profeflor of the practice of medicine at Padua, and died in 1730. 
His works, being only in ne are not fo Buch. gn as they 
deferve to be. 2e es 
The fame country had the honour b er + ander mof 
excellent obferver in Micheli of Florence, whofe Nova Genera 
Plantarum, publifhed in 1720, is a fundamental book in botany; it 
has the rare merit of being a work of original and accurate obfer- 
vation in the moft difficult of all plants, graffes, moffes and fungi. 
If Dillenius and Linnæus had paid due regard to his obfervations, 
they would not have fo totally mifunderftood the fru&tification of 
mofles as to take the capfule for the anthera. The world may ftill 
TU for more RTE from this excellent man, on the publi- 
| 1 of his ts, now in the hands of Mr, sont gor- 
zetti, the worthy poffelfor of all his remains = 
This leads me to mention the Hiftoria Mufcorum, publie by 
Dillenius in 1741, that matchlefs work which, for the accurate 
delineation and determination of fpecies, has never been rivalled in 
any department of botany, much lefs in that which it illuftrates. 
This author has made the intricate tribe of moffes and alge com- 
paratively eafy 5 without fuch a writer they would all probably have 
continued the opprobrium of botany, as fungi and confervæ are 
full. 
A work worthy to be compared! with this of Dillenius, for the 
more than Herculean labour which was employed in its compofition, 
is the Hierobotanicon of Olaus Celfius, profeffor of divinity at 
Upfal, and one of the firft and warmeft patrons of Linnæus. He 
travelled to the Eaft on purpofe to enquire into the plants of fcrip- 
ture, the determination of which was his darling object for more 
than 50 years. His book was not efteemed as it deferved till its 
author 
