224 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



343. In the heginning of the 16th century we find the names 

 of many who were engaged in investigating the vegetable king- 

 dom. Some are commemorated by the names of plants ; Leon- 

 ard Fuschs of Germany by the plant Fuschsia ; Lobeliiis, phy- 

 sician to James I., by the Lobelia ; and Lonicer, by the Loni- 

 cei'a. Lobelius distinguished the cotyledons of seeds ^ divided 

 tnonocotyledonous from dicotyledonoios plants^ and attonpted to 

 form families hy grouping species according to their natural 

 relations. Zcdusicm^ of Bohemia^ lahored top)erfect the natural 

 groups of former lotanists ; he is the first cf the moderns who 

 positively affirmed the existence of stamens and pistils in all 

 speciis of plants^ amd suggested the necessity of these organs. 



344. But notwithstanding the labors of many learned men, 

 little real improvement would have been made in the science of 

 Botany had there not, at that time, existed some minds of su- 

 perior genius, who turned their attention to tracing some proper 

 method of classification. These were Gesner, Clusius, Csesal- 

 pinus, and Bauhin ; of the latter name were two brothers, both 

 of whom are deservedly celebrated. Gesner., called the Pliny 

 of Germany, born in 1516, was of an obscure and humble ori- 

 gin, but possessed of a powerful and penetrating mind. He at- 

 tempted to malie a general collection of the ohjects ofnaturcd his- 

 tory ; he explored the Alps., and discovered many plants until 

 then unlxnoicn. He is distinguished from those w^ho had gone 

 before him in his suggestions that there existed in. the vege- 

 table kingdom genera., each one composed of many S23ecies, 

 united by similar characters of the flowers and fruit. Soon 

 after the publication of this opinion, botanists began to under- 

 stand that the difterent families of plants have among them- 

 selves natural relations^ founded upon res^nblances and affini- 

 ties^ and that the most obvious are not always the most impor- 

 tant. These are fundamental truths; and the distinction of 

 species^ tlie estahlishment of genera., and of natural families., 

 seemed to follow of course, after these principles were once es- 

 tablished. The Tulipa gesneriana and genus Gesneria have 

 been dedicated to this botanist. 



345. Clusius was born in 1526 ; his parents had destined 

 him for the profession of law, but his decided taste for Botany 

 induced him to abandon this profession. Though he was learned 

 in the ancient and modern languages, his enthusiasm for nat- 

 ural history induced him to lay aside every other pursuit. He 

 traveled over almost all the west of Europe in order to make 

 discoveries in the vegetable kingdom, and soon excelled all the 

 botanists of the age in the knowledge of both native plants and 



343. Botanists of the 16th centary — Lobelius— Zaluzian. — 344. Gesner. — 345. Clusius, the first who 

 proposed to divide plants into classes. 



