INTRODUCTION. 



General History of Plants, containing the result of fiftj 

 years patient and acute observation, was enriched 

 with masterly descriptions, declared by the immortal 

 Haller to have been at that day unequalled."* 

 yU The younger Baujtn soon pursued the steps of his 

 brother, with the same praise worthy diligence, but 

 with greater facilities for acquiring information ; and 

 though less critical, and less accurate, he was more 

 popular than his brother, and his career was more 

 brilliant than that of any preceding botanist. He per- 

 formed a most acceptable service, by designating the 

 different names which other writers had applied to the 

 same plant, and his work is still a key to the reposi- 

 tories of ancient botany. 



But the extensive writings of the Bauhins did not 

 give to botany the regular form which it has since 

 assumed, for the system of Caesalpinus, memorable 

 only as the first production of its kind, had been ne- 

 glected, perhaps forgotten by his successors, and the 

 subject was entirely overlooked, till revived by Mor- 

 rison of Scotland. He was soon followed by Rivinus 

 .1 German botanist, whose system, founded upon the 

 number and regularity of the petals, was so simple and 

 ;o easily learned, that it found several adherents on 

 the continent of Europe. It had been the practice 

 of the systematic writers who preceded Rivinus, to 

 separate trees from herbs, and to aim at an arrangement 

 purely natural ; but he rejected the former, because 

 it marred the uniformity of his plan, and renounced 

 the pursuit of affinities as uncertain and abstruse. The 

 simplicity of this system was one of its greatest excel- 

 lencies ; but unfortunately, the variableness of the or- 



• Edinburgh Encyclopedia., 



