274 OF BOTANICAL ARRANGEMENT. 



trees, shrubs and herbs, except a consideration of their 

 places of growth, and also of their qualities. The earli- 

 er botanists among the moderns almost inevitabl}' fell 

 into some rude arrangement of the objects of their 

 study, and distributed them under the heads of Grasses, 

 Bulbous plants. Medicinal or Eatable plants, &c., in 

 which their successors made several improvements, but 

 it is not worth while to contemplate them. 



The science of Botanical Arrangement first assumed 

 a regular form under the auspices of Conrad Gesner and 

 Cassalpinus, who, independent of each other, without 

 any mutual communication, both conceived the idea of 

 a regular classification of plants, by means of the parts of 

 fructification alone, to which the very existence of Bota- 

 ny as a science is owing. The first of these has left us 

 scattered hints only, in various letters, communicated to 

 the world after his premature death in 1565 ; the latter 

 pubhshed a system, founded on the fruit, except the 

 primary division into trees and herbs, in a quarto vol- 

 ume printed at Florence in 1583. This work Linnaeus 

 studied with great care, as appears from the many notes 

 and marked passages in his own copy now before me. 

 Hence he adopted his ideas of the supposed origin of 

 the calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils, from the outer 

 bark, inner bark, wood and pith, which are now proved 

 to be erroneous. In his own Classes Plantarum he has 

 drawn out a regular plan of the System of Csesalpinus, 

 the chief principles of which are the following : 



I . Whether the embryo be at the summit or base of 

 the seed. 



