242 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



fraction species to each genus. Fortunately for our comparisons the 

 volume of Tragus deals with not very far from the same number 

 of species as that of Dioscorides, and seems to have rather more 

 than twice as many species to each genus; or, to express it differ- 

 ently an equal number of species is distributed to only half as 

 many genera by Tragus as by Dioscorides; and this must be re- 

 garded as having been somewhat revolutionary, especially in view 

 of the fact that Brunfels and Fuchs had much less perceptibly, 

 if at all, departed from time-honored usage in such matters. 



There may be reason to doubt that such a movement originated 

 in the mind of Tragus himself. There are intimations elsewhere 

 that as a new departure it may have been suggested if not advised 

 by a mind more philosophic than his own. But this is a matter the 

 investigation of which may be deferred. What should here be 

 remarked is, that almost every generation of active and leading 

 systematists during now nearly four hundred years has been di- 

 vided upon the question of whether plants are more philosophically 

 disposed in few genera of many species, or in many genera of corre- 

 spondingly few species; and in Tragus' book we are at a kind of 

 starting point in this perhaps endless controversy about the delimi- 

 tation of genera. As perceptibly inclining to reduce the number of 

 them he is again the forerunner of Linnaeus. 



Surveying now somewhat closely 62 consecutive pages of the 

 first 100, we enumerate 45 species all in one line, and with a soli- 

 tary exception, all at agreement as to certain very obvious char- 

 acteristics. All of them exhibit fibrous roots, quadrangular stems, 

 and opposite leaves. In 41 out of the 44 the leaves are simple 

 and in no wise divided or even cleft. Here is proof that things had 

 been selected and brought together under the guidance of definite 

 morphologic principle. Also much time and toil must have been 

 bestowed upon the getting together of so considerable a number 

 of square-stemmed opposite-leaved herbs all at agreement in a 

 general characteristic of leaf-outline. Some of them are much 

 branched herbs in which no trace of quadrangularity is seen on the 

 maturer branches, but only on the growing twigs; and it was the 

 judgment of something like a botanical expert that brought such 

 into line among the square-stemmed. It is also worth noticing 

 that 41 of the 45 are plants more or less aromatic. 



The number of the genera among which the 45 plants are dis- 

 tributed is twenty. First in order stands Urtica with three species ; 

 then seventeen genera of the family of the Labiates; then the genus 

 Valeriana with three species. As to the nettles proper and the 



