FRUITS AND GARDEN PLANTS. 15 



The elder Pliny and Galen contributed also to a knowledge of the 

 properties of plants. But the Germans were first to found historical 

 botany and to commence scientific classification. The Italians followed, 

 and then the Belgians. The French greatly increased the number of 

 plants and reformed the nomenclature ; so that, at the beginning of 

 the 17th century, the number of species known was 5,500. This 

 number continued to increase, by an awakened attention to the sub- 

 ject and the united labors of others in various countries, until Linnaeus 

 appeared with his Species Plantarum, when the number of plants 

 known was 7,300. Since this time it has increased most wonderfully. 

 A more systematic, or natural method of arrangement has been intro- 

 duced by Jussieu, Condolle, Mirbel and others, and the whole now 

 presents in every department the most attractive interest. The pro- 

 gress of the science of vegetables, botanical and agricultural, has been 

 unexampled in the history of any other science. But however inter- 

 esting this may be, we lack time and space to notice it further. 

 Chemistry, the chief source of improvement in this branch of science, 

 has recently disclosed, through Liebeg and others, the most important 

 facts, as to the nature, requirements and properties of fruits and plants, 

 and shed a noon-day light in the path of the practical agriculturist. 

 By this we have been governed in our expositions of the several 

 branches of the subjects hereafter treated. We will not, therefore, 

 go back to show how little has been known but briefly present what 

 is now known of these subjects. 



Of fruits, their great variety and useful properties, comparatively 

 little could have been known before commerce, in the 15th and 16th 

 centuries, conveyed those of one country to the people of another. 

 They had, from the earliest periods, constituted a chief article of hu- 

 man food ; and now, as we shall see, they are at once the most im- 

 portant, luxurious and wholesome aliment, as well as the most valuable 

 for many other very important purposes in life. Constituting an essen- 

 tial part of vegetables, the scientific history of fruits is connected 

 with the plants which bear them, though they were much earlier used 

 and valued by man, as they contributed immediately to his existence. The 

 modes in which they may be used both for food and drinks, and in the 

 arts have increased with the progress of science and civilization. The 

 rich products of the tropical climates are now transported to every 

 other clime, and the use of our own has been refined by every art of 

 genius and luxury. 



Garden Plants have received attention corresponding with the pro- 

 gress of agricultural science and civilization. This branch of our 

 subject, therefore, has advanced rapidly within comparatively a few 

 years. Luxury has fortunately contributed greatly to the develope- 

 ment of the most valuable properties of garden productions, which are 

 now everywhere, and justly esteemed, not only as the most grateful, 



