The Evolution of Botany. 187 



of the various countries were under continual observation, 

 not only to enlarge the fund of phanerogamic plants, but 

 more especially with a view of learning more about the 

 cryptogams or the lower orders. So Nees von Eiseneck, 

 Tode, Bolton, and Corda very much increased our knowl- 

 edge of the fungi. Eiseneck deserves much credit for his 

 work in systematizing the fungi. He studied and elabo- 

 rated upon the various stages of development of sweet- 

 water alga?, systematized the sponges, and wrote the natural 

 history of the liver mosses. 



The beginning of the nineteenth century found the vari- 

 ous established departments of botany receiving renewed 

 attention, while a number of new ones were being founded. 

 We find a series of botanists who made it their duty to 

 study the internal structure of plants more fully. Among 

 these may be mentioned Link, Kudolphi, Treviranus, Mol- 

 lenhauer, Sprengel, Mirbel, and others. Link was one of 

 the most ardent phytotomists of his time. He contributed 

 largely to the knowledge of the way plants grow, and the 

 various functions of the several organs. To his untiring 

 study of the anatomy of plants we owe much of our present 

 knowledge of the structure of plant tissue. He was a pro- 

 fuse writer on botanical subjects, and his Elements of Plant 

 Anatomy and Plant Physiology, with a large supplement, 

 were masterpieces of botanical work. Mirbel, too, was one 

 of the foremost plant anatomists and physiologists, direct- 

 ing his attention mainly to the establishment of a theory 

 regarding the organization of plants, which he published in 

 several works. 



Sprengel awakened much interest in phytotomy through 

 his studies regarding the various cells and vessels and their 

 structure. His uncle also devoted himself to botanical 

 studies, and discovered the mode of fructification of flowers, 

 or rather the ovaries, by the pollen, conveyed there by the 

 wind, insects, and the many other natural contrivances. 



L. C. Treviranus first occupied himsolf with phytotomy 

 and plant physiology, but later lent his aid in determining 

 and correcting the nomenclature of the species. He dis- 

 covered the intercellular spaces and the structure of the 

 epidermis, being the first to interpret the function of the 

 stomata, or breathing pores, in the plant economy. In all 

 of his works he emphasized and gave value to evolution as 

 a factor in the transmutation of species. Much that we 

 know of the organs of fructification we owe to him as well 



