HISTORY OF BOTANY. 55 



1715. He was a botanist of great repute, and deservedly. It 

 is after him that Plumier has named the genus Magnolia. 



Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was born at Aix, in Provence, 

 1656, and died at Paris, 1708. He was of a noble family, 

 and was destined for the church, but his tastes leading him in 

 the direction of Science, he became a botanist of considerable 

 authority. He travelled over a great part of Europe, and also 

 in Asia Minor, Armenia, the Caucasus, the neighbourhood of 

 the Black Sea, &c., and made large collections of plants. 



Augustus Quirinus Rivinus was born at Leipsic, 1652, 

 and died 1725. He was a physician, and a professor of 

 Anatomy and Botany. As I have before stated, it is not 

 my purpose to explain the prmciples on which different 

 botanists have founded their systems of classification, or to 

 trace minutely the steps by which a universal system has at 

 last been reached. Though the three last learned botanists 

 each invented a system, these were all eclipsed by that of 

 Linneus, which in its turn has been superseded by one 

 founded on the principles first enunciated by Ray. 



Plumier, whose name has already been frequently mentioned, 

 was born 1646, at Marseilles, and died near Cadiz, 1704. He 

 was appointed to explore the French settlements in the West 

 Indies, and was afterwards sent to the Antilles ; he resided 

 some time in St. Domingo. Plumier's principal work, * New 

 Genera of Plants,' was published the year before his death. 



Before taking leave of the seventeenth century a word 

 may be said in honour of our "merry" but scapegrace* 



'•= Eochester, at the request of the king, wrote his epitaph, which 

 from its extreme pungency gave great offence : — 



" Here hes our sovereign lord the King, 

 ^Vliose word no man relies on ; 

 Who never said a foolish thing, 

 And never did a wise one." 

 Perhaps the foundation of the Koyal Society may be taken as that 

 exception which is said to be necessary to prove a rule. 



