1 26 NATURAL SCIENCES. 



over, princes and prelates, nobles and plebeians, seemed to take an interest in 

 horticulture : the greater was political agitation, the greater seemed the attrac- 

 tions of country life. Cardinal de Chatillon had magnificent plantations at 

 Maillezais, of which place he was bishop ; and Francois Rabelais, during 

 his stay at Rome, sent him various kinds of seeds and plants which were 

 imported into France for the first time, and became indigenous. The two 

 leading statesmen of this period, Cardinal du Bellay and Cardinal de 

 Lorraine, also deserve mention in the history of gardening, for they 

 encouraged the pursuit of botany, and sought repose from the cares of 

 state,, the one at the Abbey of St. Maur, and the other at the Chateau de 

 Meudon, where they passed their time amidst the trees and flowers. At 

 this period there were no public botanical gardens in France, like those of 

 Passau in Bavaria, and of Pisa and Florence in Italy, though Jean Ruel, 

 Dean of the Paris Faculty and physician to Fra^ois I., explained in his 

 valuable work, " De Natura Stirpium " (Paris, 1536, in folio), the necessity 

 of creating such a garden for the teaching of practical medicine. 



The era of Transatlantic voyages, which followed the discovery of America, 

 was a very fruitful one, and the maritime voyages of discovery and conquest 

 were succeeded by scientific voyages. Distant lands, drawn closer to Europe 

 by the ties of commerce, were opened for the researches of science. The first 

 facts of natural history, collected from beyond the seas, both from East and 

 West, from Mexico and Brazil as from China and Japan, were due to the 

 Jesuits, who have left us true and interesting accounts of the countries into 

 which they carried the standard of Christianity. Valuable information was 

 also given by the diplomatic agents in foreign countries. Busbecq, who was 

 the ambassador of three German emperors in Turkey, took with him the 

 learned naturalist of Sienna, Andrew Mattioli, to assist him in his botanical 

 researches. Pelicier, French ambassador at Venice, had as his secretary and 

 physician the learned Guillaume Rondelet ; and Cardinal du Bellay, ambas- 

 sador of Francois I. to the Holy See, attached to his suite the great Rabelais 

 in a similar capacity, who, however, has not left us any of the works he may 

 have composed during his travels in Italy. Guillaume Rondelet, on the other 

 hand, published several works on Ornithology and Ichthyology. A French 

 naturalist still more celebrated, Pierre Belon, who accompanied Cardinal de 

 Tournoii in several of his diplomatic missions, was supplied by him with the 

 means of travelling in Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia, where he completed and 



