gs 
54. Porta, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. 
Phytognomonica .. . octo libris contenta, [1588] 
irst edition. 
These illustrations interpret the “ Doctrine of signatures,” with 
which Porta was much occupied. The parts of the body cured by 
certain herbs, or the animal whose bite or sting was cured by it, 
are shown in the same picture. Porta, says Greene, “ was guidec 
— 
by ... ecology, forms of roots, of leaves, and vegetative organs 
generally.” 
55. Porta, GIovANNI BATTISTA. 
Villae libri xt. . . 1592, 
I*irst complete ec 
je 
ition. 
An interesting, practical treatise on 
agriculture. 
arming, gardening, and 
56. Ray, JOUN. 
Catalogus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam, 16600. 
First edition. 
John Ray, “the father of English Naturalists,” has been de- 
scribed as “ the greatest European botanist of the seventeenth cen- 
tury.” This, his first book, embodies his work on the flora about 
Cambridge. 
57. Ray, JOHN. 
Historia plantaruin ... de plantis in genere... 2 vols. 
1686. 
Vol. 3, Supplement. 1704. 
Ray inaugurated a natural system of classification, making use 
of characters afforded by the fruit and flower as well as other parts 
of the plant. This work summarizes the chief facts then known 
about the functions and structure of plants, and describes 18,625 
species (vs. 600 by Dioscorides and Bock, 6000 by Bauhin, etc.). 
Carefully studied by Linnaeus. 
* My reasons for attempting this work were . . . To give some 
light to young students . . . To facilitate the learning of plants 
without a guide or demonstrator... [so] that it shall not 
be difficult for any man who shall but attend to them and the de- 
