28 THE NEW BIOLOGY 



1 



Father Plumier gave the name of Fuchsia to one of 

 the most beautiful of the garden-flowers which we have 

 received from America. 



VALEEIUS COEDUS 



1515-1544 



The brief and tragic history of Valerius Cordus 

 (son of the Euricius Cordus already mentioned) can 

 only be glanced at here, because few naturalists can 

 acquaint themselves at first hand with the surviving 

 fragments of his work, which were piously collected by 

 Gesner. Dying at twenty-nine, he had already made 

 his mark in science. He is remembered as the dis- 

 coverer, or one of the discoverers, of sulphuric ether, as 

 the first to say in print that young ferns spring from 

 the light dust borne on the back of the leaves, as one of 

 the first to trace the origin of coal to long-buried vege- 

 tation. The term pollen, which had been used by Pliny 

 as the name of meal or any other kind of fine dust, 

 Cordus applied to the dust emitted by anthers. He has 

 a special name {papilionaceous) for the fiower of Legu- 

 minosse (Gesner had already compared pea-blossom to a 

 butterfly).' 



CONEAD GESNEE 

 1516-1565 



C. Gesneri Opera Botanica ... Omnia ex Bibliotheca D[om.] C. J. Trew 

 nunc primum in lucera edidit et prsefatus D[om.] C. C. Schmiedel. 2 pt. 

 Fol. Norimbergse. 1751-71. 



Gesner studied at Strasburg, Paris, Basle and Mont- 

 pellier (under Rondelet), and became skilled in the 



^Greene {Landmarks of Botanical History) has given a detailed and 

 appreciative notice of the botanical work of Valerius Cordus. 



