THE STUDY OF PLANTS IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. tf 
vegetation of the remotest corners of the earth was ransacked by travelling 
botanists without any material advantage being gained, though they not infre- 
quently ran considerable risk to their health, and sometimes sacrificed their lives. 
As one generation succeeded another thousands of students of the “scientia ama- 
bilis” made their appearance in every country. Swept along by the prevailing 
current of thought they devoted themselves to the examination of native and foreign 
floras, or to a detailed study of the most insignificant sections of the vegetable 
kingdom. Those who are not under the spell of this passion cannot conceive the 
joy experienced by the discoverer of a hitherto unknown moss. To such it is 
inexplicable how anyone can devote the labour of half a lifetime to a classification 
of Algz or Lichens, or to a monograph of the bramble-tribe or orchids. The pro- 
gress achieved eventually in this department of botany is best appreciated when 
the wide difference in the numbers of species described in botanical works of 
different periods is considered. Theophrastus in his Natwral History of Plants 
(about 300 2.c.) mentions about 500 species, and Pliny (78 A.p.) rather more than 
1000; whereas, by the time of Linnzus, about 10,000 were known; and now the 
number must be all but 200,000. It should be remarked, however, that half the 
plants described since Linnus lived fall into the category of Cryptogams, or non- 
flowering plants, the examination of which was first rendered possible by the wide- 
spread use of the microscope in recent times. 
The microscope led also to discoveries concerning the internal architecture 
of plants. A faint attempt in this direction, made 200 years ago, had died away 
without leaving any trace behind; but at the commencement of this century the 
“inward construction of plants” was studied all the more eagerly by means of the 
microscope. In buildings belonging to different styles of architecture it is not 
only the forms of the wings, stories, rooms, and gables that differ, but also and 
in no less degree those of the columns, pilasters, and decorations. The same is the 
case with plants. They possess chambers at different levels, vaults, and passages. 
They have pipes running through them, and beams and buttresses, some massive 
and some slender, to support them. The pieces of which they are built vary in 
size, and their walls are sculptured in all kinds of ways. It was the business of the 
vegetable anatomist to dissect plants, to look into all these structures under the 
microscope, to describe the various component parts as well as the ground-plan and 
elevation of the plant-edifice as a whole; and to name the different forms of struc- 
ture after the manner of Linn®us when he invented terms for the different forms 
of stems and leaves, and for the several parts of the flower and fruit. 
DOCTRINE OF METAMORPHOSIS AND SPECULATIONS OF 
NATURE-PHILOSOPHY. 
Side by side with this immense volume of research, which was directed to the 
separation, description, and synoptical arrangement of mature forms only, there 
arose about the year 1600 another school which considered vegetable forms from 
