32 THE NEW BIOLOGY 



It was extensively adopted in a later generation by 

 Father Plumier (1646-1704). 



Gesner's History of Animals is noticed elsewhere. His 

 publications, though copious and learned, only partially 

 explain the reverence with which after ten generations 

 naturalists and scholars still regard the name of Conrad 

 Gesner. 



MATTHIAS DE L'OBELi 

 1538-1616 



Plantarura seu stirpium Historia . . . cui annexum est Adversariorum 

 volumen. Fol. Antw. 1576. 



From the age of sixteen L'Obel was a diligent observer 

 of plants. He betook himself at the age of twenty-seven 

 to Montpellier, in order to study under Kondelet, then 

 at the height of his fame. Here he paid close attention 

 to the plants of Languedoc and the Cevennes, which 

 afterwards yielded him much material for description. 

 Kondelet died in 1566, and his manuscripts were left to 

 L'Obel as his favourite pupil. He did not return home 

 at once, for the terrible Alva was governor of the Low 

 Countries from 1567 to 1573, and many of the unfor- 

 tunate Flemings were glad to take refuge in England. 

 L'Obel was one of these, and his first botanical work^ 

 was produced in London. We next find L'Obel in 

 Antwerp, where he practised medicine. His repute 



^ Biographies of L'Obel by Edward Morren are to be found in Bull. F4d6r. 

 Soc. d' Horticulture de Bdgique, 1875, and in Biog. Nat. de Belgique. 



^Stirpium Adversaria nova . , . autoribus Petro Pena et Matthia Lobelio. 

 Fol. Lond. 1570. Pena had been a fellow-student of L'Obel at Montpellier 

 and a diligent collector of the plants of Languedoc. Legr6 {La botanique en 

 Provence au XVP siecle, 1899) has shown that the Adversaria was largely the 

 work of Pena. L'Obel and Pena left Montpellier for England together ; Pena 

 remained there for several years, and afterwards became very successful as a 

 physician in France. 



