56 MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



various vicissitudes, became the property of Trew 

 of Norimberg. Sensible that, whether we view the 

 extent of Gesner's knowledge and learning or his 

 singular industry, such must be the veneration for 

 his character, that any of his remains must claim 

 the attention of the curious, the possessor gratified 

 the public, by the pen of Dr. Schmiedel, with an 

 ample specimen, published in 1753."* 



The work alluded to by Pulteney is an ele- 

 gant folio in two volumes. The first, which in the 

 copy now before us bears the date of 1751, con- 

 tains an elaborate and interesting life of Gesner by 

 Schmiedel, to which we have been largely indebted 

 in drawing up the present biography ; portrait and 

 armorial bearings of Gesner; the history of his 

 works on plants; commentaries on the fifth book 

 of Valerius Cordus, with a notice, De morbo et 

 obitu Yalerii Cordi ; the first book of Gesner's His- 

 toria Stirpium ; and an extensive series of his wood- 

 engravings, followed by others on copper by Se- 

 ligmann of Nuremberg. This work is beautifully 

 printed and embellished, and forms a kind of reper- 

 tory of the botanical lore of the period, of the 

 highest interest to the historian of the science. 



Much valuable botanical information is likewise 

 to be found in Gesner's letters to his friends, many 

 of which letters still exist. His views with regard 

 to arrangement are chiefly to be derived from this 

 source. 



When we have mentioned our author's work, 

 * Pulteney's Sketches of Botany, vol. i. 



