HISTORY OF BOTANY. 59 



1708. From his earliest years his great talents became 

 apparent, for with little or no effort he mastered the Latin, 

 Greek, and Hebrew languages between his sixth and ninth 

 year.* Even then he had assumed the habit of noting all 

 the information that he considered interesting or valuable ; 

 so that while yet a lad he had the particulars of the lives of 

 some thousand eminent persons written in his common-place 

 book. In studying for the medical profession Haller went 

 first to Tubingen, and afterwards to Leyden, where, among 

 others, he had Boerhaave for a teacher. Among numerous 

 other studies, Haller occupied some time with Botany, and 

 in the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Gottingen (under 

 the patronage of our George II.) may be found some 

 interesting and beautifully illustrated articles on some plants 

 in their garden. As a physician, anatomist, physiologist, 

 botanist, and poet, Haller will always be held in esteem. 

 His biograj)her, already quoted, says : " It is impossible to 

 deny that by his learning and assiduity, by the example of 

 his life, and his teaching, and by the quickening influence 

 of his theoretical views, he set his seal not only on his age, 

 but has left it imprinted on all time." Haller died 1777. 



Johann Jacob Dillen, or Dillenius, the first Professor of 

 Botany at the University of Oxford, was born at Darmstadt, 

 1687, and studied at the University of Giessen. He became 

 a very celebrated botanist; indeed, he wished to be con- 

 sidered the greatest of his time. In 1727 he published a 

 Flora of Giessen ; he adopted the system of Ray, in prefer- 

 ence to those of Tournefort and Rivinus. Dillenius did 

 good service to Botany by his study of the Cryptogamia, 

 leading the way to a knowledge of their manner of 



*'* It is open to anyone to doubt, or qualify according to his judgment 

 such extraordinary statements ; but it is not at all unusual to meet 

 with instances where children acquhe, as it were by intuition, what 

 many could not gain in a lifetime. 



