HISTORICAL INTRODLCTION. XXXI 



professors, and amongst the students were Clusius, Dalecliamps, 

 J. Banhin, EauwolflP, L'Obel and his shadowy colleague Pena. 



So many notable writers were contemporaneous about this 

 period, that I cannot pretend to arrange them in strict chrono- 

 logical order. Rembert Dodoens, latinized into Dodonaeus, is 

 well known by his Pemptades, a Latin version of the Cruydt- 

 hoeTx, the excellent woodcuts of which are cited by Linnaeus 

 for illustrations of European plants. This work was translated 

 by Clusius into French, and into English by Henry Lyte, of 

 Lytes-Cary, in Somersetshire ; the copy Lyte used, with ex- 

 tensive and beautifully-written notes in red ink, is in the 

 British Museum Library. 



Clusius, as best known to the Latin reading world, or Charles 

 de I'Escluse, as his name appears in his French translations, 

 was almost as much distinguished by his personal misfortunes 

 as by his sterling botanical merit. He travelled through Spain 

 to observe the plants of that peninsula, and Hungary and 

 Bohemia for alpine plants; in doing so he suffered greatly 

 from accidents which one after another happened to him, and 

 at length quite crippled him, but failed to quench his unap- 

 peasable ardour in the pursuit of the knowledge of plants. His 

 Latin style is much praised for its purity, and as he was first 

 to describe a very large number of new plants, his books are 

 of great interest. He ended his days as professor of botany, 

 at Ley den, in 1609. 



The first luxurious work on botany was the ffortus ei/stef- 

 tensis, an unwieldy folio, with copper-plates of plants of natural 

 dimensions, several times reprinted; it is attributed to Basil 

 Besler with a certain amoimt of doubt as to the real author. 

 In this work we find, for the first time, references to the pages 

 of the authors cited. 



Bodaeus a Stapel is known to fame by having edited Theo- 

 phrastus, De historia plantarum, and giving the opinions of 

 Scaliger and others ; this is considered the " Editio princeps." 



