707 



the same subject, from Professor Forbes's admirable ' Inaugural Lec- 

 ture on Botany.'* 



" The history of Botany, from the time it first assumed a scientific character to its 

 pahny state in the present century, is more instructive than that of any of the other 

 Natural-history sciences, though later in its development ; for among the ancients, its 

 most eminent votaries, Theophrastus and Dioscorides, were rather herborists than bo- 

 tanists, and originated no grand generalizations like those which gave the first impulse 

 to zoological science, nursed by the giant mind and indefatigable research of Aristo- 

 tle. But though Zoology started with the speed of the hare. Botany, like the slow 

 tortoise, at length overtook it in the race, and the heavy volumes of Bauhin, Gerarde 

 and Caesalpinus, were all so many steps on the way. It first quickened its speed as a 

 science of observation. Ardent naturalists went forth into foreign climes, and collect- 

 ed their vegetable products with indefatigable industry, noting carefully their living 

 forms and hues. Others, tied down by the trammels of home-occupation, gathered the 

 plants of their native coimtries and recorded their variations. Confused ideas of na- 

 tural affinities clouded their early arrangements, but from the material so accumulated 

 truer notions were in time generated. The good and kind-hearted, rather than the 

 strong-minded, were the first votaries of the science. The gentleness of the pursuit 

 was adapted to the kindliness of their natures. Their earnest unbiassed studies, origi- 

 nating in the admiration of the wonders and beauties of creation, and deej) reverence 

 for the great Origin of all things, were the corner-stones of botanical science, and on 

 such a sound and firm foundation the superstructure could not fail to be nobly and 

 speedily raised. In time the building was commenced ; Ray, Touruefort, and a host of 

 lovers of nature laid the first stones. Linnaeus and Jussieu were the chosen architects. 



" The great Swede, whose many-sided mind made all the science of his time con- 

 tribute to his grand purpose of developing the system of Nature, saw at a glance, that 

 though there was much material collected, more must be continually gathering, and 

 that to make good and rapid use of what had been drawn together, machinery was 

 wanting. 



" ' Instrumentis et ausiliis res perficietur: quibus opus est nihilominus ad intellectiim quam ad rnanum.'t 



" Linnaeus invented the required instruments and aids. Whilst he taught that the 

 grand aim of Botany should be the discovery of the true arrangement of plants in Na- 

 ture, and boldly sketched his idea of what he conceived that arrangement would prove 

 to be, — in order that such great end might be the more speedily attained, he devised 

 two ingenious artificial schemes, which, as he foresaw, led to the desired results. These 

 were the binomial nomenclature, and the classification of plants according to the num- 

 ber or arrangement of their sexual organs. 



" The first of these inventions, the simplicity of which is that characteristic of all 

 the creations of genius, became the greatest means of furthering the progress of Na- 

 tural History. It was endowing it with a universal language, in which all its follow- 

 ers might converse with perfect mutual understanding. The distinctions of nation 



* An Inaugural Lecture on Botany, considered as a Science, and as a Branch of 

 Medical Education. Read in King's College, London, May 8th, 1843. By Edward 

 Forbes, F.L.S., F.B.S.E., &c. &c., Professor of Botany in King's College, London. 

 London : John Van Voorst, 1 , Paternoster Row ; B. Fellowes, Ludgate St. 



t Bacon, Nov. Org. lib. i. aph. 1 . 



3 p 2 



