CANADIAN BOTANY. 49 



prosecute svich investigations. As it was, his efforts were concentrated upon finding new 

 avenues for trade, and, if possible, solving the question of a north-west passage to India. 



In his voyage to the Pacific from ITOO to 1*795, Vancouver' visited the west coast of 

 America. His was the first expedition to visit Canada, having a professional naturalist 

 attached to it, and it was at that time that Mr. Archibald Menzies, a surgeon in the Eoyal 

 Navy, accomplished that work which has since made his name a familiar one in Canadian 

 botany. 



That, for two hundred and sixty-five years, the explorers of this great country con- 

 tributed but little to the advancement of our botanical knowledge, stands as a conspicuous 

 fact ; though among them all, there occasionally appeared one who seemed in a measure 

 to redeem the reputation of the class. It will be possible, however, to more fully 

 appreciate the true position of these early explorers, and understand the general absence 

 of botanical observations from their results, if we briefly recall the state of botanical 

 science in Europe from the sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century. 



At the time of Cartier's voyages, botany as a science was unknown. Plants were 

 regarded as of value only so far as they were directly applicable to economic purposes and 

 to medical practice. No attempt had then been made to study jilants scientifically and 

 reduce them to a system of classification, nor was it until several years later, that Konrad 

 Gesner, of Zurich, recognised the value of a classification based upou the embryo ; although 

 the application of the principle was not made iiutil a yet later period, when Andrea Ces- 

 alpini, an Italian, put it to a practical, though not wholly successful, test. The date ot 

 Champlain's voyage arrived, therefore, with botanical science in an unformed state. In 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, the two great lights in the botanical 

 world, Ray in England and Tournefort in France, succeeded in establishing independent 

 systems of classification, which, while they have long since been replaced, are yet justly 

 regarded as constituting the first real basis of scientific botany. But it yet remained for 

 the brilliant geniiis of Linnaeus to establish that system of binomial classification, which 

 not only rendered him the father of botany, but which has been in use until a A'ery recent 

 period. The year 173*7, in which the artificial system of Linntrus was announced, may 

 well be considered that from which botanical science dates its growth. Nor should we 

 lose sight of the fact that, before Linnseus, and even for some time after, there was no 

 very general diffusion of botanical knowledge. Svich as was acquired, was confined to a 

 few specialists, to the medical profession, and to the priesthood, whose members, from 

 their studious habits of life, would be among the first to acquire such information as 

 was extant. 



Following Linnreus, or contemporary with him in the eighteenth century, there were 

 several whose names are illustrious in the history of botanical progress, and whose labors 

 gave a special impulse to the new science. The discovery of new lands, and the explora- 

 tion of hitherto unknown regions, were continual sources of new and valuable material, 

 upon the examination of which, there were abundant opportunities to found a reputation. 

 Thus, within the eighteenth century, the names of Bernard de Jussieu, the contemporary 

 of Linnœus ; of Adanson, his pupil ; of A. L. Jussieu, his nephew, and at the close of the 

 century, of De Oandolle, appear as bright lights in a brilliant period of botanical progi-ess. 



'■ Vancouver's Voyages, 1801. 



Sec. iv, 1887. 7. 



