LECT. I.] AND PROGRESS OF BOTANY. 1 I 



To endeavour to display even an accurate sketch 

 of the progress of the science, from his time to that 

 of Linnseus, within the compass of a Lecture, would 

 be vain ; we shall notice, therefore, a few only of 

 the more remarkable occurrences. 



Near the close of the sixteenth century, CJSSAL- 

 PINUS.*, a Florentine, one of the professors of the 

 University of Padua, made the first attempt at clas- 

 sification ; for, previous to his time, plants had been 

 described without any order, and the possibility of 

 simplifying the study of the science by arranging 

 them in classes, had not yet been conceived. JUN- 

 GIUS followed in the footsteps of Csesalpinus, and by 

 taking a clearer and more extensive view of his sub- 

 ject, the idea of those principles on which the 

 Linnsean system is founded, suggested itself to him, 

 and was developed in his writings : he died in 1657. 

 JOHN RAY -}-, an Englishman, succeeded Jungius, 

 whom he followed in many particulars, in preference 

 to his cotemporary the great Tournefort, whose 

 merits as a systematist were only exceeded by 

 those of Linnseus. Ray was a man of laborious 

 research. His work, entitled Hlstoria Plantarum 



* This celebrated naturalist, who was born at Arezzo, ir^ 

 1519, threw great light upon the vegetable structure ; and was 

 the first of the moderns who hinted at the sexes of plants. He 

 died in 1603. 



f RAY, who was a native of Essex, was born in 1628, and 

 died in 1705. 



