28 Botanists of Germany and the Netherlands [Book i. 



downwards, spread very widely, and are continually putting 

 forth new and young clusters like hops.' 



Then follows a long paragraph on the names, that is, a 

 critical review of the opinions of different writers on the ques- 

 tion, which of Dioscorides' or Pliny's names should be applied 

 to the plant described. ' I must think,' says Bock, ' that this 

 flower is a wild sort, Scammonia Dioscoridis (but harmless), 

 which herb Dioscorides also calls colophonia, dactylion, 

 apopleumenon, sanilum, and colophonium,' and so on. Then 

 follows a chapter on its virtue and effect externally and 

 internally. 



As regards the arrangement of the 567 species described 

 by Bock, he divides his book into three parts, the first 

 and second containing the smaller herbs, the third the 

 shrubs and trees. In each part closely allied plants are 

 generally described in larger or smaller numbers one imme- 

 diately after another, though the compiler is all the 

 time under the influence of very various considerations, and 

 follows no general principle. For instance, our Convolvu- 

 lus stands in the midst of a number of other very different 

 plants, which either climb as the ivy, or twine with tendrils as 

 Smilax : then follows Lysimachia Nummularia, which simply 

 runs along the ground, then the hop, Solanum Dulcamara, 

 Clematis, Bryonia, Lonicera, and different Cucurbitaceae ; 

 immediately after come the Burdocks, Teasels, and Thistles, 

 and these are followed by some Umbelliferae. The whole work 

 is conceived in a similar spirit ; the feeling for relationship is 

 clearly to be traced within very narrow circles, but it finds im- 

 perfect expression and is frequently disturbed by reference to 

 biological habit ; this appears especially in the beginning of 

 the third part, which treats of shrubs generally, shrubs which 

 form hedges, and trees, ' as they grow in our German land ' '> 

 the first chapter is on the fungi which grow on trees, the second 

 on some mosses, and these are followed immediately by the 

 mistletoe. Then come the heather and some smaller shrubs, 



