THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 507 



shame, finally became so voluminous and so lacking in a system that it 

 must needs be put in order. This was accomplished by Linnseus, who 

 proved in his ' Species Plantarum ' of 1753 that the indexer is some- 

 times as important as the real discoverer, and this may give encourage- 

 ment to the often unthanked class of librarians and bibliographers 

 without whose work our best efforts would often be squandered in 

 fruitless searchings of the literature of the past. Since this work of 

 Linnaeus has been fixed upon as the initial point of priority of 

 names, it is well to pause long enough to see how a page of it 

 really looks. Like many of the standard books even of recent de- 

 scriptive botanical literature it is all in Latin, which goes to prove 

 that in botany, at least, Latin is not a dead language. I venture the 

 assertion that as much Latin is read daily within the walls of the 

 museum of the New York Botanical Garden as in any building in 

 New York city, not excepting the departments of Latin in its colleges. 



But space forbids us to follow farther the general development of 

 our knowledge of the world's flora as depicted in the various works 

 emanating from the geniuses of the generations. We can only men- 

 tion in passing a few of the landmarks that stand as beacons along 

 the course of systematic botany. Here is an early one at Berlin where 

 the brilliant Willdenow, though dying at forty-seven, gave us a rational 

 ' Species Plantarum/ the fourth since Linnaeus and the first that really 

 described plants from their characters. Here stands another on Lake 

 Geneva where Augustin, most brilliant of four generations of De 

 Candolle botanists, commenced the ' Prodromus,' which was the next 

 great attempt to set in order our increasing knowledge of the world's 

 vegetation. Here is a third at Kew, where George Bentham actually 

 grappled with death and forced it back, that he might complete 

 his masterly ' Genera Plantarum.' And here is a more recent, wide- 

 reaching, and more useful if less brilliant beacon again set up at 

 Berlin under the leadership of the Bismarck of German botany — 

 who, though Eegierungsrath, modestly and democratically subscribes 

 himself, ' A. Engler.' 



Turning now to the real subject in hand, let us take a glimpse 

 at the progress of our knowledge of the American flora. It can 

 be only the merest glance because of the natural complexity of the 

 subject; we must look at landmarks here and there, and note only the 

 general trend of a few of its more salient features. 



Among the early observers of plants in the American provinces 

 was John Clayton, of Virginia, for whom our little spring-beauty is 

 named. He made collections of the plants noted in that province and 

 sent them to Gronovius, who published a ' Flora Yirginica ' in 1739 — 

 a work known to Linnseus and constantly cited as his authority for 

 American plants. Gronovius' plants are still preserved in the British 



