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labors of a long series of enthusiastic and ardent lovers of nature who, 

 in succeeding periods, carefully noted and accurately arranged and tested 

 their observations, until we inherit as their descendants, the rich legacy 

 of the accumulated lore of ages. 



The infancy of Natural History was the recognition of surrounding 

 objects, and the eager, childish desire to understand their relationships 

 to God and man. Stories of animals from deep seas or foreign lands 

 were treasured with wonder and delight, and this age of universal 

 credulity known as the " legendary," was succeeded by that of the col- 

 lectors and travellers who were able to refute or confirm, by their own 

 observations, so much that was doubtful. 



The great instinctive desire of the heathen and savage to worship 

 the natural in his surroundings, who saw his deity in the sun or in the 

 mi«hty rushing waters, or seemed to feel the supernatural in some living 

 creature, must have been an evidence of God working in him for his de- 

 velopment. 



A knowledge of botany has existed from the earliest times, for the 

 plants that so beautify the globe must have ever attracted mankind's 

 notice. The wise Solomon " spake of trees." and the Egyptians and 

 Greeks are known to have been the early cultivators of plants for their 

 medicinal virtues. Aristotle, the great mind of Greece and the leader 

 in all intellectual culture of his time, was especially a Naturalist, and 

 his work on Natural History is not only a record of his own investiga- 

 tions but of all preceding knowledge in this department. He refers his 

 readers to illustrations in anatomical text-books which seem to have 

 been in familiar and general use 2, COO years ago. Pliny, of the 

 Romans, added scarcely a fact to Aristotle's store. 



A history of plants was written by Theophrastus, 300 years before 

 Christ, but Dr. Brunfels, of Berne, restored the science to Europe in 

 the 16th century in his " History of Plants." 



The 16th century, which saw the occupation of the New World and 

 a general impetus given to learning, is rightly regarded as the starting 

 point of the modern knowledge of natural causes and of the natural 

 sciences. The three following centuries have made great progress in 

 developing the truths of Natural History. 



The 16th century awakening of Western Europe led to active 



