192 Morphology and Systematic Botany under [BOOKI. 



Botany appeared all at once as a science rich in subject- 

 matter ; Schleiden had not only himself made many inves- 

 tigations and broached new theories, but he everywhere drew 

 attention to what was already before the world and was im- 

 portant ; for it is not sufficient as regards the literature of 

 a science that there should be good investigators; it is as 

 necessary that the scientific public, and especially the rising 

 generation of professed students, should be well and sufficiently 

 instructed in the art of distinguishing important from unim- 

 portant contributions. It must be distinctly affirmed in this 

 place, that if Schleiden's theory of cell-formation, his strange 

 notion about the embryology of Phanerogams and the like, 

 were very quickly shown to be untenable, this does not in the 

 least affect the great historical importance which his writings 

 possess in the sense here indicated. 



That others besides Schleiden in the period following 1840 

 felt strongly that botany must thenceforward give up its com- 

 placent resting in the old ideas, was shown among other things 

 by the addition at this time of new periodicals to the old journal 

 ' Flora.' The ' Botanische Zeitung ' was founded by von Mohl 

 and Schlechtendal in 1843, and the ' Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaft- 

 liche Botanik ' by Schleiden and Nageli. The latter, however, 

 only lived three years, from 184410 1846, and was filled almost 

 entirely with Nageli's contributions. Both publications expressly 

 set themselves the task of representing the new aims in the 

 science. The immediate consequence was that ' Flora ' 

 braced up its energies, and endeavoured to do more justice 

 to the modern spirit ; excellent notices of botanical works now 

 appeared in it under the exclusive management of P'iirnrohr. 



Schleiden's productivity in the higher sense of the word 

 expended itself in his labours on the elements of scientific 

 botany. His later somewhat discursive writings exerted no 

 great influence on the further development of the science, 

 The ideal which he had set up for scientific botany and had 

 sketched in its larger outlines, could only be realised by the 



