314 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



from superfluous terms, nor from the omission of important 

 circumstances. 



Caesalpinus, a native of Florence, who was contemporary 

 with Clusius, proposed to form species into classes. The char- 

 acters which he employed for this purpose, were, the duration 

 and size of plants ; presence or absence of jloicers; the number 

 of cotyledons ; the situation of the seed as erect or pendant ; 

 the adherence of the pericarp to the seeds ; the number of 

 cells in the pericarp, and the number of seeds which they con- 

 tained ; the adherence of the calyx to the germ ; and the na- 

 ture of the root, whether bulbous or fibrous. This method was 

 too imperfect to be followed, having neither the simplicity or 

 the unity to render its application useful. 



John Bauhin, though younger than Gesner, was his friend 

 and pupil ; he composed a general history of plants ; this was 

 a work evincing great learning and accurate investigation. 

 Gaspard Bauhin, the younger brother, no less active and 

 learned, and endowed with a still more penetrating genius, 

 conceived the design of a work which should contain a history 

 of all known plants, together with the different names which 

 other writers had applied to the same plant. Clusius and the 

 elder Bauhin had imagined something like a genus of plants, 

 formed by the' grouping of similar species, but Gaspard Bauhin 

 expressed this more decidedly in remarks upon generic distinc- 

 tions ; his work, the result of forty years' labour, was of great 

 assistance to Linnaeus, in perfecting our present system of 

 botany. 



We find in looking back upon the labours of botanists during 

 the 16th century, that more had been accomplished than during 

 any former period ; the character of novelty and originally 

 exhibited in these researches, is highly creditable to those who 

 thus led the way in the march of improvement. 



The 17th century, in its commencement, was not favourable 

 to the sciences. Europe was agitated by continual wars, and 

 the arts of peace were neglected ; but in the last part of that 

 age, a taste for natural history revived ; men of highly gifted 

 minds applied themselves to the study of botany, and many 

 undertook long voyages with the sole design of examining 

 foreign plants. Botanists were astonished at the great number 

 of interesting plants discovered by travellers, in the region of 

 South Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and in the East 

 India Islands. 



At this period the plants of our own country began to excitf 



Ceesalpinus Characters employed by him in the formation of classes The 

 Bauhins Retrospect of the 16th century Commencement of the 17th cen- 

 turyLast part of that age. 



