226 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



wlio wrote about this period, are commemorated in the beauti- 

 ful gemis Commelina, first discovered in America. Bonnet^ of 

 Geneva, a close observer of facts, wrote upon the " Nature and 

 Offices of Leaves f^ and a. work entitled, '''' Contemjplation of 

 Wature^ or tlie Regeneration of Being sP Gaertner of Germany 

 wrote upon fruits, or, as he termed this department of the sci- 

 ence, Carjyology. He dissected the fruits of more than a thou- 

 scmd jylants^ the figures of which he designed and engrctved. To 

 Gleditsch^ professor of Botany at Frankfort, is dedicated the 

 genus Gleditscha. Budhech the younger, who preceded Lin- 

 ngeus as professor of Botany in Upsal, was, by the latter, com- 

 memorated in the genus Rudbeckia. At this period the j^lants 

 of our oion country began to excite the curiosity of scientific Eu- 

 Tojyeans. Louis XIY. sent to America Plumier^ a man cele- 

 brated for his mathematical and botanical knowledge, and who 

 was styled Botanist to the King. He gave drawings and de 

 scriptions of more American species than any other traveler 

 had done. The practice of naming newly discovered plants after 

 distinguished hotanists heccome common. History now presents 

 us with many who were distinguished by their efforts in the 

 cause of science. 



349. Botanists now began to study the stamens and pistils 

 of plants j and it was suggested that the science would remain 

 imperfect as long as sj^ecies and genera were undefined. Orders 

 and classes also were recommended, and naturcd resemUances 

 and affinities studied. A worh loas loritten upon the umhel- 

 liferous plants','^ this was the first attempt at describing in 

 one mctss any single group of plants by characters peculiar to 

 the whole. This was followed by several attempts to form a 

 natural method of classification ; among the most approved of 

 these methods was that of Ray, w4io published a work called 

 " A General History of Plants ;" in this he divided all plants 

 into thirty-three classes, twenty-seven of which were composed 

 of herbs., the rest of trees. The first botanist who proposed 

 to class plants without any reference to their being either herbs 

 or trees, was a German, of the name oi Bivannus^ who proposed 

 to consider, as the foundation of classification, the ctbsence or 

 presence of fi/yioers / the manner in which they were situated., or 

 their injiorescence / the number of petals / the regidar or irreg- 

 ular form of the corolla ; the adherence or non-adherence of the 

 calyx to the ovary / the nature of the p)<^vicarp) / the numher of 

 seeds and of cotyledons. A botanist of the name of Magnol at 

 this time was honored by having his name given to the splen- 



* The author of this was Robert Momson, a Scotchman. These monoirraphs , or descriptions of 

 single families, are now of great value; no botanist can thoroughly investigate the whole vegetable 

 Kingdom ; but by close attention to one department important discoveries may be made. 



349. Various impwvements in Botany — Ray— Rivannus— Magnol. 



