,24 NATURAL SCfEXCXS. 



Peter Martyr (Pietro Martire d'Anghiera), while on a diplomatic mission in 

 the East, verified upon the spot, book in hand, the statements of Aristotle, 

 Theophrastus, and Dioscorides ; John Manardi, a doctor of Ferrara, her- 

 borised in Poland and Hungary ; and Jacques Dubois, the Amiens doctor, 

 surnamed Sylvius, travelled all through France, Germany, and Italy in order 

 to study nature. 



. Gradually the taste for scientific travel became general, arid bore its 

 natural fruits. Valuable collections of natural history were formed, exotic 

 plants were acclimatised, and animals domesticated. Horticulture became a 

 practical science ; to kitchen and fruit gardens were added pleasure-grounds; 

 and it was a Metz priest, Master Francois, who invented the "herbaceous 

 ingraftment," the secret of which has only recently been recovered. The 

 culture of many new plants gave still further development to botany, which 

 had its special chairs in most of the leading Universities ; and those of Ferrara, 

 Bologna, and Padua had the advantage of being filled by Ghini and 

 Brasavola. The best botanists were the doctors, whose main object was to 

 extend the domain of the materia medica, and who all published large books 

 written in Latin and replete with engravings : Otho Brtmfels, of Mayence, 

 his " Herbarum Vivas Icones " (1530-36) ; Euricius Cordus, of Cologne, whose 

 son Valerino became one of the greatest botanists in Germany, his " Botano- 

 logicum " (1534) ; and Leonard Fuchs, a Bavarian, his " Commentarii 

 Insignes " (1542). It would be impossible to enumerate here all the works 

 on natural history, on botany more particularly, which appeared during the 

 first half of the sixteenth century in Germany, Holland, and Italy, and 

 which testify to the vigorous growth of the new science. It must, however, 

 be said that, out of the countless cosmopolitan travellers who went to the 

 West Indies in search of fortune, one only, Gonzales Fernandes of Oviedo, 

 brought back with him the materials for a really important work on natural 

 history. This work he entitled " La Historia general y natural de las Indias " 

 (Seville, 1535, in folio), and it contains a very accurate description of the 

 animals, trees, shrubs, and plants of Southern America. 



France, whose artists had enriched so many liturgical and religious manu- 

 scripts (Fig. 91) with paintings of flowers, birds, butterflies, and insects, 

 very readily took part in the study of natural history. Charles Estienne, 

 anatomist and botanist, one of the most distinguished members of the family 

 of Parisian printers which conferred so much renown upon the name of 



