322 Von Martius on the Life and Writings of Robert Brown. 



important to man, — even upon its now lost structures, existing 

 in former epochs. Robert Brown was, in fullness as well as 

 depth of knowledge, and in intellectual mastery of it, the greatest 

 botanist (Pflanzenkenner) the world has yet produced. All his 

 works bear the stamp of profundity and veracity. When the 

 patriarch of German naturalists, Alex, von Humboldt, named him 

 *^ JBotanicorum facile princeps/' every follower of the science joy- 

 fully and gratefully acquiesced. 



The epoch of R. Brown may be termed that of botanical Peri- 

 patetics. Extensive travels were undertaken, the most distant 

 countries and seas examined. Men botanized — investigated and 

 reflected while they roamed. The "world of plants" — the 

 variegated, thousand-fold transformed mantle of the earth — was 

 brought under survey as in a bird's-eye view, and the orderly- 

 arranged and systematized material delivered over to the in- 

 ^quirers of another generation^ Aporetics we may term these — 

 for the investigation of the nature, life, and action of the Plant. 

 The activity of the former was turned to direct observation j 

 they were what are called describing systematists. The task of 

 the latter was to observe with all the appliances of the study 

 and the laboratory, — to experiment, to weigh, to calculate, to 

 drag to light the entangled laws of the seemingly, but only 

 seemingly, simple life of plants. 



Botany, as a collegiate study, had its origin in the ancient 

 Doctrine of Simples; its cultivators were principally medical 

 men. Such was the case in R. Brown's instance also. But, like 

 every creative genius, he has contributed to open new paths 

 leading out beyond those former problems. In these paths 

 physicists and chemists dealing with vegetable physiology will 

 penetrate the more certainly into the mysteries of vegetable life 

 the more truly they apply and make use of the rich acquisitions 

 of his genius. 



Robert Brown was the son of the Rev. James Brown,, after- 

 wards a consecrated bishop of the Scottish episcopal church, 

 and he first saw Hght at Montrose, on the 21st December, 1773. 

 His mother's maiden name was Taylor. He received his earliest 

 instruction in his parents' house, and the higher preparation 

 for academic study (of which the lad himself very early made his 

 Own choice) in Marischal College, Aberdeen. In the University 

 of that town he also commenced his medical studies, which he 

 continued in Edinburgh, and terminated in the year 1795. He 

 attended the lectures of Prof. Rutherford, but soon took an 

 independent path, making it his object to investigate closely the 

 then imperfectly known flora of his native country. In the very 

 same year he entered a Scotch militia regiment, the Fifeshire 

 Fencibles, as ensign and assistant-surgeon, and remained with it 

 in Ireland until he left the military service. 



