176 The Evolution of Botany. 



neglected and allowed to recede into and remain in oblivion 

 for a long time. 



Again there is no record of botany until the twelfth cent- 

 ury. The few who did interest themselves in it did so only 

 to the extent of acquiring the little knowledge already pos- 

 sessed by men of Theophrastus's time, without entering upon 

 any researches which would have enriched the fund of bo- 

 tanical knowledge. The dominant tendency at that time 

 was to study the works of the old authors, among whom 

 Dioscorides was recognized as the highest authority, and up- 

 on whose work many commentaries were written. 



In the thirteenth century we find the German Albertus 

 Magnus investigating and studying plant life, upon which he 

 wrote seven books, which have since been published (1521) 

 in twenty-one volumes. The voluminous character of this 

 work hides its value as a botanical text-book, for which it 

 is believed to have been intended. 



"When, at the end of the fifteenth century, the sciences be- 

 gan to revive and receive attention again, botany welcomed 

 a goodly share. The Germans especially were instrumental 

 in delivering botany from the fetters of the old school. The 

 inadequacy of the teachings of Dioscorides induced several 

 naturalists among whom were prominent, Brunfels, Bruns- 

 wick, Fuchs, Tragus, and Gessner to examine and study 

 the plants of Germany, with a view to publishing a work 

 with illustrations and descriptions based upon their own re- 

 searches. This they finally accomplished. 



Gessner was the first to conceive the idea that the organs 

 of fructification were the essential ones, and that a classifica- 

 tion, the need of which began to be felt, should be based up- 

 on these. 



These men were followed by Peter Matthiolus, A. Csesal- 

 pinius, Alpino, Columna, Dodonaus, Clusius, Lobelius, Dela- 

 champ, Gerard, Camerarius, the brothers Bauhin, and others, 

 through whose exertions the number of known plants at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century had reached 5,500. 

 With this large number of plants little could be done if they 

 were not classified, and some systematic arrangement became 

 a necessity. The first attempt at a " natural arrangement " 

 was made by Lobelius (1570), who classified plants into trees, 

 grasses, ferns, lilies, etc., simply according to their external re- 

 semblances. A. Caesalpinius, afterward named by Linnasus 

 the " first orthodox systematizer," acted upon the suggestion 

 of Gessner and employed the fruit and the essential parts of 



