107 
historical interest has been made. The gift, in 1911, by Mr. Alfred 
T. White, of a first edition (London, 1862) of Darwin's Fertiliza- 
tion of Orchids, which laid the foundation for a collection of rare 
books at the Botanic Garden, must have pleased the Director, 
whose keen interest in the collecting of historically valuable botan- 
ical books dated back to his youth. This collection became one 
of great pride and satisfaction to him. 
Of special interest among these rarities are the incunabula, or 
fifteenth century books. Just before Columbus discovered Amer- 
ica, the Hortuli Commentarium of Columella, Rome, 1485, and 
the De Proprictibus Rerwm of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 1491, 
were being printed. The latter was the standard work on natural 
history throughout the Middle Ages, and the Botanic Garden h- 
brary is most fortunate in having these works, as well as six other 
incunabula, in its collection. 

Included among the more than 500 pre-Linnaean works are 
many herbals, “those naive, ponderous and cyclopedic works.” * 
They contain descriptions and illustrations by the collectors of 
herbs, and are well represented by the rare Adam in Eden of 
William Cole, 1657, and The Herball, cr Generall. Historie of 
Plantes, Gathered by John Gerarde of London, Master in Chirur- 
geric, 1597, which contains probably the first published illustration 
of the Virginia potato. Mattioli’s commentary on the Materia 
Medica of Dioscorides, which listed the medicinal properties of 
about six hundred plants and served as the basis for medical prac- 
tice for over fifteen centuries, is represented in the library by many 
editions. 
The pre-Linnaean group also contains interesting examples of 

anal 
works by botanists who pioneered in exact and discriminating 0 
servation, and in experimentation. Such is The Anatomy of Veg- 
etables Begun, by Nehemiah Grew, 1672, which attempted to de- 
scribe anatomical features of parts of plants, Robert Hooke’s 
)- 
Micrographia, 1665, and Antony van Leeuwenhoek’s Opera 
Omnia, 1695-1719, which introduced a new world of microscopic 
“animalcules!’’ and made possible the science of plant anatomy 
soon to be introduced by Grew, and Malpighi, whose Anatome 
Plantarum, 1675-79, forms a valuable contribution in this collec- 
* Bailey, L. H. The Survival of the Unlike. 4th ed.-p. 139. 
