NUMBERS OF PLANTS KNOWN 



with the microscope, and with the work of Linnasus in 1731 

 modern botany was well started and ready to develop.^ 



It is interesting to compare the numbers of plants known 

 at various periods, so as to see how greatly our knowledge has 

 been increased of recent years. Theophrastus (300 b.c.) knew 

 about 500 plants. Pliny (78 a.d.) knew 1000 species by 

 name. Linnaeus in 1731 raised the number to 10,000. 

 Saccardo in 1892 gives the number of plants then known as 

 follows : — 



173,7062 



But, during the years that have elapsed since 1892, many 

 new species have been described, so that we may estimate 

 that at least 200,000 species are now known to mankind. 



But it is in the inner meaning and general knowledge of 

 the life of plants that modem botany has made the most ex- 

 traordinary progress. It is true that we are still biu-dened 

 with medieval terminology. There are such names as 

 " galbulus," " amphisarca,'' and " inferior drupaceous pseudo- 

 carps," but these are probably disappearing. 



The great ideas that plants are living beings, that every 

 detail in their structure has a meaning in their life, and that 

 all plants are more or less distant cousins descended from a 



* Bonnier, Cours de Bofaniqtie, 



2 Saccardo, Atti d. Con^resso, Bot, Intern, di Genova^ 1892. 

 38 



