FOEMATIOX OF SYSTEMS. 379 



The addition of exotic species to the number of known plants was 

 indeed going on rapidly during the interval which we are now con- 

 sidering. Francis Hernandez, a Spaniard, who visited America towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century, collected and described many plants 

 of that country, some of which were afterwards published by Recchi. 2 * 

 Barnabas Cobo, who went as a missionary to America in 1596, also 

 described plants." The Dutch, among other exertions which they 

 made in their struggle with the tyranny of Spain, sent out an expedi- 

 tion which, for a time, conquered the Brazils ; and among other fruits 

 of this conquest, they published an account of the natural history of 

 the country. 38 To avoid interrupting the connexion of such labors, I 

 will here carry them on a little further in the order of time. Paul 

 Herman, of Halle, in Saxony, went to the Cape of Good Hope and to 

 Ceylon ; and on his return, astonished the botanists of Europe by the 

 vast quantity of remarkable plants which he introduced to their know- 

 ledge. 37 Rheede, the Dutch governor of Malabar, ordered descriptions 

 and drawings to be made of many curious species, which were pub- 

 lished in a large work in twelve folio volumes. 28 Rumphe, another 

 Dutch consul at Amboyna, 29 labored with zeal and success upon the 

 plants of the Moluccas. Some species which occur in Madagascar 

 figured in a description of that island composed by the French Com- 

 mandant Flacourt. 30 Shortly afterwards, Engelbert Ksempfer, 31 a 

 Westphalian of great acquirements and undaunted courage, visited 

 Persia, Arabia Felix, the Mogul Empire, Ceylon, Bengal, Sumatra, 

 Java, Siam, Japan ; Wheler travelled in Greece and Asia Minor ; and 

 Sherard, the English consul, published an account of the plants of the 

 neighborhood of Smyrna. 



distinction to the Virginian Potato, at the time of Gerard's Herbal. (1597 ?) 

 Gerard's figures of both plants are copied from those of Clusius. 



It may be seen by the description of Arachidna, already quoted from Theo- 

 phrastus, (above,) that there is little plausibility in Clusius's conjecture of the 

 plant being known to the ancients. I need not inform the botanist that this 

 opinion is untenable. 



14 Nova Plantarum Regni Mexicana Historia, Rom. 1651, fol. 



15 Sprengel, Gesch. der Botanik, ii. 62. 



6 Historia Naturalis Brasilia, L. B. 1648, foL (Piso and Marcgraf ). 

 27 Museum Zeylanicum, L. B. 1726. 

 99 Hortus Malabaricus, 1670-1703. 

 29 Herbarium Amboinense, Amsterdam, 1741-51, fol. 

 10 Histoire de la grande Me Madagascar, Paris, 1661. 

 61 Amcenitates Exotica, Lemgov. 1712. 4to. 



