194 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



and otherwise not particularly systematic, herbalists. Independently of 

 Cesalpino, plant classification was actually developed in a new direction 

 through Caspar Bauhin. He was born at Basel in 1550 and studied medicine 

 and botany, as did also an elder brother, under the above-mentioned Fuchs 

 at Tubingen. He afterwards worked for a number of years as a professor in 

 Basel, until his death, in 1614. His chief botanical works, Prodromus and 

 Pinax theatri botanici, constitute the first attempts at a critical compilation 

 of all the then known scientific names and descriptions of plants. 



Bauhin s system 

 Bauhin is entirely independent of Cesalpino; he bases his principles on his 

 master Fuchs and those like him, the semi-medical herbalists of the sixteenth 

 century. But he differs from the latter in his keen eye for the natural affinity 

 of plants; he groups together such plants as resemble one another generally 

 in their external form and discusses them in order, starting with those he 

 considers the most primitive: the Graminaceas, then the Liliaceas, the 

 Zingiberaceas, after which the dicotyledons, and finally shrubs and trees. 

 These groups are, however, neither characterized nor given names. Only the 

 individual plants are described, which are combined under one genus-name, 

 after which they are characterized in respect of all the forms that belong to 

 each one of those names. These diagnoses are brief and concise and are ac- 

 companied by short accounts of earlier authors' statements on each plant. 

 On the other hand, the actual genus-names are not in any way characterized, 

 any more than the larger groups mentioned above; there is therefore no justi- 

 fication for the assertion that is sometimes made that Bauhin clearly grasped 

 the contrast between genus and species. With greater reason he has been 

 called the originator of natural plant classification based on the common 

 likeness between the plant forms, as opposed to the artificial systematization 

 founded by Cesalpino, which is based on an individual organic system — 

 a contrast that has proved of great significance in botany, whereas in zoology 

 it has not been of such consequence. And above all as a critic of earlier botani- 

 cal literature Bauhin carried out a work of lasting value. 



Joachim Jung, generally called Jungius, holds a peculiar position 

 amongst the botanists of the seventeenth century. Born at Liibeck in 1587, 

 he became, while still young, professor in mathematics at Giessen, but soon 

 relinquished his appointment, and thereafter, for more than ten years, he 

 lived a somewhat restless life, until in 162.8 he became rector of a gymnasium 

 in Hamburg. He displayed extraordinarily keen and many-sided activity 

 both as a scientist and as a tutor, but eventually he came to work in rather 

 difficult circumstances, partly owing to quarrels with the Hamburg priests, 

 who accused him of heresy.' For these and other reasons most of what he 



' In the course of his education in Greek, Jung had studied, besides the New Testament, 

 profane classical authorsi when challenged on this point, he defended himself by saying that 



