CHAPTER V. 



SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY. 



The seventeenth century saw a further advance in bota- 

 nical knowledge, and produced many illustrious writers on 

 the Science. Among these the brothers John and Caspar 

 Bauhin are pre-eminent at the commencement : they were 

 natives of Basle. 



John, a phj^sician, was born 1541, and died 1613. He 

 studied Botany at Tubingen, under Fuchs, and afterwards 

 made the acquaintance of Gesner, with whom he travelled 

 in Switzerland. He also collected plants in France and 

 Italy. He was appointed professor of rhetoric in Basle in 

 15G6, and in 1570 he was invited to be physician to the 

 Duke of Wurtemberg, in which situation he continued until 

 his death. He published several medical and botanical 

 works ; the most important did not appear during his life, 

 but was published in 1650. This is his ' History of Plants,' 

 which contains descriptions of about 5000 and is illustrated 

 with 3577 figures. 



Caspar Bauhin was born 1560, and died 1624. He studied 

 first at the University of Basle, and afterwards at Padua, 

 Montpellier, and Paris. In 1581 he took the degree of 

 doctor of medicine, in 1582 he was appointed professor of 

 Greek, and in 1588 professor of Anatomy and Botany in 

 the University of Basle, where he afterwards also occupied 



