THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 17. MAY 1859. 



XXXIII. — Robert Brown : an Eloge. By Dr. von Martius*. 



Next to Linnseus stand three other names, ever memorable iu 

 the history of Botany — A. L. de Jussieu, A. P. DeCandolle, and 

 Robert Brown. They inaugurated a new epoch, and smoothed 

 its earher course. The comprehensive genius of Linnseus had 

 spread out the net of system over the whole world of indivi- 

 dualized creation — established kingdoms, classes, orders, ge- 

 nera, and species with definite characters. A. L. de Jussieu 

 gathered up the Vegetable Kingdom thus logically subdivided by 

 Linnseus, and, by the synthesis of happily divined essential cha- 

 racters, joined its scattered members together into what is 

 called the " Natural System.^^ This was a glorious edifice, but 

 incomplete — in some parts only as it were sketched out. The 

 last sixty years have been occupied in its further elaboration ; 

 while DeCandolle extended the boundaries, R. Brown added to 

 its depth and height. 



The evolutive nature of plants turned the mind of Brown in 

 the direction of analytical investigation; he penetrated the 

 inmost recesses of vegetable organization, and, in its rudiment- 

 ary and early conditions, seized the essence and the laws of its 

 morphology. No one has equalled him in knowledge of the 

 structures of the vegetable kingdom. He detected similarity 

 when concealed, and he separated that which had merely the 

 appearance of likeness. He sympathetically demonstrated the 

 hidden relations between the most diversified forms. He laid a 

 sure foundation for Phytogeography by pointing out the exist- 

 ence of laws in the numerical relations of plants, according to 

 different zones and countries. He threw light from all sides 

 upon that great domain of creation, the vegetable kingdom, so 



* Translated by Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S. &c. 

 Am, ^ Mag, N, Hist. Ser.3. Vol.iiu 21 



