The Evolution of Botany. 193 



laboratories for the physiological, anatomical, morphologi- 

 cal, and pathological study of plants can now be found in 

 all the great institutions of learning. In short, all depart- 

 ments of botany are being developed with the accelerating 

 rapidity indicative of our present time. 



We have thus briefly traced the historic evolution of 

 botany from the earliest time the time of its origin, which 

 must have been contemporaneous with the beginning of 

 man's cognizing powers through the different phases of its 

 growth up to the present time. 



We have seen how it originated simultaneously with 

 medicine, or rather how its origin and early growth were 

 dependent upon the growth of medicine at "first, and how 

 afterward the growth of medicine was largely dependent 

 upon the development of botany, especially after the discov- 

 ery of the active medicinal constituents of plants. 



We learned that descriptive botany was necessarily the 

 first department, and that as the number of known plants 

 began to increase, classification became a necessity, and that 

 through many centuries various arrangements had been 

 devised, each one succumbing to its successor, until finally 

 our present one was arrived at. 



We have reviewed the beneficent results for botany which 

 the invention of the microscope brought about; how the 

 knowledge of the internal structure, the anatomy of plants, 

 was gained through its application and use, and how plant 

 anatomy gradually served to develop plant physiology. 



We learned of the many botanical explorations to the 

 various countries, and how these opened up vast fields for 

 the labor and research of botanists, and how, in order to 

 facilitate and cultivate the study of botany, botanical gar- 

 dens were instituted in the large cities where the nature 

 and habits of foreign plants could be observed as well as in 

 their native habitation. Then the cryptogams began to 

 occupy the attention of botanists for a time, while morphol- 

 ogy and systematic botany began to be developed, the other 

 departments steadily advancing in the mean time. Then 

 followed a series of important discoveries in the physiology 

 of plants, and the application of chemistry was very helpful 

 to the progress of the science. Geological and paleontologi- 

 cal botany were next instituted, together with pathological 

 botany, and all the departments are now in progress of still 

 further development. 



The history of botany is thus a veritable exposition of 

 14 



