30 Botanists of Germany and the Netherlands [Book i. 



it would be necessary to transcribe them. For brevity's sake we 

 will here quote de l'£cluse only \ the best of the three writers 

 named above. In his 'Rariorum plantarum historia,' which 

 appeared as early as 1576, but which lies before the writer of 

 these pages in the edition of 160 1, the first book treats of trees, 

 shrubs, and undershrubs ; the second of bulbous plants ; the 

 third of sweet-smelling flowers ; the fourth of those without 

 smell; the fifth of poisonous, narcotic, and acrid plants; the 

 sixth of those that have a milky juice, and of Umbelliferae, 

 Ferns, Grasses, Leguminosae, and some Cryptogams. 



A similar arrangement is found in Dalechamps 2 ; that of 

 Dodoens in his ' Pemptades ' is more perplexed and unnatural ; 

 but the design in both of them is evidently much the same as 

 that of de l'Ecluse. This design is best seen from the intro- 

 ductory observations to each book ; de l'Ecluse, for instance, says 

 at page 127, * Having treated of the history of trees, shrubs, and 

 undershrubs, and put these together in the preceding book, we 

 will now in this second book describe such plants as have a 

 bulbous or tuberous root, many of which attract and delight the 

 eyes of all persons in an extraordinary degree by the elegance 

 and variety of their flowers, and which therefore ought not to have 

 the lowest place assigned to them among garland-plants (' inter 

 coronarias '). We will begin with the plants of the lily kind, on 

 account of their size and the beauty of their flowers, etc. etc' 

 The introductions to the several books of the ' Pemptades ' of 

 Dodoens are more learned and more diffuse. It is plain that 

 the composers of these works had no thought of arranging 



1 Charles de l'Ecluse (Carolus Clusius) was born in Arras in 1526. His 

 family suffered from religious persecution in France, and he spent the "reater 

 part of his life in Germany and the Netherlands; in 1573 he removed to Vienna 

 by the invitation of Maximilian II ; in 1593 he became professor in Leyden 

 and died there in 1609. See Meyer, ' Geschichte der Botanik,' iv, who 

 gives full information respecting the eventful life of this distinguished man. 



3 Jacques Dalechamps, a native of Caen, who died in 1588, was a philolo- 

 gist rather than an original investigator of nature, as is remarked by Meyer 

 in his ' Geschichte der Botanik,' vi.p. 395. 



