BKLNFELS AND FL'CHS 235 



In these days when cheap methods of photographic reproduction 

 have destroyed the future of wood-engraving, and cheap illustration 

 implies the plainest line-work with no "shading' to conceal deficiencies 

 of workmanship, rapidity of work and (output being considered more 

 desirable than careful drawing, which takes time as well as skill — the 

 tendency of botanical illusti-ation will be to return to pen-work of the 

 kind done by these old masters : line- work as represented by copj^ei'- 

 plate engraving of the last century being also extinct, though un- 

 doubtedly in its capacity for delicate detail the ideal method for 

 plant-representation *. For this reason the work of such draughtsmen 

 as those of Fuchs, who set the standard for the sixteenth century 

 herbalists of the Low Countries, from which all subsequent herbals 

 deteriorated t for a hundred years (Parkinson, 1640), deserve to be 

 more thoroughly studied by botanical draughtsmen of the present 

 da}'. 



These general remarks serve to draw attention to the probability 

 that Fuchs did not originate the w^hole of this conception entirely 

 de novo, but that there must have been some earlier work on which 

 to build. Every botanist has to learn his science from a preceding 

 generation ; the very efficiency of Fuchs' work, '* the culminating point 

 of plant-drawing as an art " :j:, implies a something behind it, of which 

 it may be the glorification, but on similar lines. 



This work is seen in the more unpretentious volume of Otto 

 Brunfels (1530-31), which stands out as the first recognized work of 

 scientific botany of the new era §. Brunfels' work suffers from many 

 deficiencies to our eyes, it is true ; so does that of Fuchs : these do not 

 require to be emphasized ; the point is to distinguish its great advance 

 beyond anything previously attempted or thought of ; and to value it 

 as giving the clue to the work of Fuchs which tends to overshadow it. 

 From the little that is known of Brunfels, it may be gathered that he 

 was not in inordinately good circumstances ; he had been educated 

 from a plain youth in a monastery, and he followed the ]3rofession of 

 a schoolmaster at Strasburg, and ultimately that of a doctor in 

 private practice. His book a23peared in 1530, when he was apparently 

 66 years old, and thus beyond any youthful enthusiasm ; while he 

 died in 1531, not long after its partial completion (1531). The 



* Sibthorp, Flora Grseca (1806): Sowerby, English Botavy (1770): Curtis, 

 Flora Londinensis (1777) : Baxter (1834) : Sargent, Silva of North America 

 (18&2). 



t Fuchs' noble volume de luxe was copied in many countries*, and rapidly 

 passed through translations and cheaper editions ; the figures being first reduced 

 to 44 by 2-k in., the standard block affected by the Antwerp Herbals; and even 

 to 2| by l| in. (1550). Many of these illustrations lasted long in ' waistcoat- 

 pocket herbals ' (Du Pinet, 1561 ; Linocier, 1620). Such figures attempting to 

 represent entire plants in quite a few lines are interesting examples of reduction, 

 and are on a fair way to imitate Sumerian pictograms. The only work which 

 really set out to improve on Fuchs is Besler's Hortus Eystetfevsis (1613) with 

 copper-plate figures on a page 21 in. by 16, large enough to take a full-size Sun- 

 flower head. The book requires a wheel-barrow to take it about, but the figiu-es 

 are merely large and do not express increased detail. 



: Ar.^175. 



§ Sachs. Hist. Botany, p. 14 : Arber, p. 47. 



s 2 



