io ROBERT MORISON AND JOHN RAY 



is an attempt at a grouping of plants, though no principles are 

 enunciated and no names are given to the groups, which resulted 

 in the bringing together of labiate, leguminous, gramineous and 

 umbelliferous herbs. The Cruydtboeck of Rembert Dodoens 

 (Dodonaeus), 1554, marks much the same stage of progress, 

 whereas the Nova Stirpium Adversaria of Pierre Pena and 

 Matthias de 1'Obel (Lobelius), issued in 1570, is a distinct step 

 in advance. Here some idea is incidentally given of the prin- 

 ciples that have been followed in the arrangement of the plants, 

 but still no name is attached, as a rule, to the resulting groups. 

 The work begins with an account of the herbaceous plants 

 which, in modern terminology, are monocotyledonous : and at 

 the end of the section (p. 65) de 1'Obel thus explains what he 

 has done : " Hactenus comparendo quot potuimus plantarum 

 genera, quarum effigies et naturae ordinis consequutione ita sibi 

 mutuo Jiaererent, ut et facillime noscerentur et memoriae manda- 

 rentur, a Gramineis, Segetibus, Harundinibus, ad Acoros, I rides, 

 Cyperos, hincque Aspliodelos bulborum tuniceorum Caepaceorumve 

 naturam praetervecti sumus." Cruciferous, caryophyllaceous, 

 labiate and umbelliferous herbs are also segregated to some 

 extent in the course of the work : and the leguminous herbs are 

 brought together into a definite group, "Alterum Frugum genus 

 nempe graminis Trifolii et Leguminum" which is really the origin 

 of the modern N. O. Leguminosae: though a few altogether foreign 

 species, such as species of Oxalis, Anemone Hepatica, Jasminum 

 fruticans L., and species of Tkalictrum, are included among the 

 trifoliate forms, and Dictamnus Fraxinella among the "Legu- 

 minosa." The Stirpium Historiae Pemptades Sex sive Libri 

 XXX of Dodoens, published in 1583, shows considerable progress 

 in classification as compared with his Cruydtboeck of 1554, more 

 particularly in the recognition, apparently for the first time, of 

 umbelliferous plants as a distinct group in a chapter headed De 

 Umbelliferis Herbis. 



Possibly these attempts to introduce some sort of system 

 into Botany may have been inspired by the teachings of Conrad 

 Gesner, that universal genius, who lived about this time (1516- 

 1565). Though but fragments of his botanical writings have 

 survived, it is clear from the much-quoted passage in a letter 



