INTRODUCTION. XXXlll 



had prepared but did not live to publish. 

 He died the next year, leaving in manu- 

 script the Theatrum Botanicum, to which 

 the Pinax was but a Table of Contents. 

 But this Table was in the form of a scheme 

 or system in which a place was assigned 

 to each plant, and this it was that con- 

 stituted its utility, because it supplied the 

 most urgent demand. Now for the first 

 time we are able to say that System has 

 come to the aid of Method. From this 

 time forth the soil of Botany was com- 

 paratively stable. One botanist knew what 

 another was talking of. And this it is 

 that explains the honours lavished by 

 Linnseus and his circle on the name of 

 Bauhin : ' Fundator rei Herbariae vere 

 magnus / and again, ' Fundamenta Bo- 

 tanices jecit anno 16%'^.' — Amoenitates 

 Acad, vi. 306. 



The Pinax was the admiration of the 

 time, and its reign was long. It was re- 

 printed as late as 1671 ; and it is the 

 representative botanical work of the seven- 

 teenth century. It became the mark and 

 test of a true botanist to call a plant by 



