ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS. 319 



And, throughout, he speaks with the most familiar 

 and vivid acquaintance of the various vegetables 

 which he describes. 



But Csesalpinus also possessed fixed and general 

 views concerning the relation and functions of the 

 parts of plants, and ideas of symmetry and system, 

 without which, as we see in other botanists of his 

 and succeeding times, the mere accumulation of a 

 knowledge of details does not lead to any advance 

 in science. We have already mentioned his refer- 

 ence to general philosophical principles, both of the 

 Peripatetics and of his own. The first twelve chap- 

 ters of his work are employed in explaining the 

 general structure of plants, and especially that point 

 to which he justly attaches so much importance, 

 the results of the different situation of the cor or 

 corculum of the seed. He shows l8 that if we take 

 the root, or stem, or leaves, or blossom, as our guide 

 in classification, we shall separate plants obviously 

 alike, and approximate those which have merely 

 superficial resemblances. And thus we see that he 

 had in his mind ideas of fixed resemblance and 

 symmetrical distribution, which he sedulously en- 

 deavoured to apply to plants; while his acquaint- 

 ance with the vegetable kingdom enabled him to 

 see in what manner these ideas were not, and in 

 what manner they were, really applicable. 



The great merit and originality of Csesalpinus 

 have been generally allowed, by the best of the 



18 Lib. i. cap. xii. 



