BOTANICAL LITERATURE. • 201 



though older and a little earlier in the field of authorship, 

 had set forth, though less distinctly, almost the same doctrine; 

 and Tournefort states unreservedly that: "The establishing 

 of genera upon a legitimate basis is to be attributed to Gesner 

 and Colurnna."^ But neither of these had very extensively 

 applied the principles ; and Tournefort's great contribution 

 ' to the advancement of botany lay in the consummate learning 

 and skill with which he applied them to the whole realm of 

 botany as then known. 



In systematic botany the conception of the genus is funda- 

 mental. To get as near the truth as possible in respect to what 

 constitutes a genus is a prime necessity of the science ; and 

 Ctesalpinus, another contemporary of Gesner, the first of all 

 men to predict that in the fruit of plants would be found the 

 key to their real affinities, is author of the celebrated remark, 

 that "The confounding of genera confuses everything." 



The botanists of antiquity, and also their disciples and com- 

 mentators down to about the close of the sixteenth century, 

 co-ordinated plants largely according to qualities and uses. 

 Then, when calling organography to their aid, they naturally 

 enough took into consideration just those organs by which 

 plants make their first and deepest impression upon the 

 mind ; the leaves, stems, roots, etc. They constructed their 

 genera— or gave a common name to an assemblage of species, 

 which is the same thing— according to the form, testui-e, and 

 duration of leaves, stems, roots ; according to the presence 

 or absence of prickles, spines or thorns, or the nature of the 

 pubescence, not by any means ignoring but rather mnking 

 much of the external characteristics of the fruit. Their 

 genera were, in a word, those of the beginner self-taught. 

 They were often extremely crude and heterogeneous ; but 

 they were also in many an instance as natural and as perfect 

 genera as those of the most enlightened and skillful of 



modern botanists. Such genera as they conceived exist in 

 the minds, and find expression in the common speech of 

 unlettered people, savage or civilized, in every country to-day. 



'• Tnst. 1. c. 



