

CHAPTER II. 



THE RISE OF THE SCIENCE OF PLANTS. 

 John Ray — ^Joseph de Toumefort — Their lives. 



The world went to sleep for many centuries, so far 

 as natural history and many other things are con- 

 cerned, after the time of Pliny , and sixteen hun - 

 dred years elapse d before any advance was made 

 in botanical knowledge. This was the age when 

 the only light on the earth was struggling Chri s- 

 tianity , and it was shaded by superstition and 

 violence. At last men began to learn Greek again, 

 and to read the ancient authors carefully, so that 

 nature began to be studied. A few foreign botan- 

 ists began to attenipt to add to the knowledge_the 

 ancients had given them, and to classify plants. 



But the first man who made a real advance, and 

 whose work has influenced the study of plant life 

 down to the present day, was an Englishman, who 

 was bred in comparative poverty, suffered persecu- 

 tion, and lived a beautiful life . 



