

42 Artificial Systems and Terminology of Organs [Book i. 



following account of the more prominent points in the history 

 of botanical science from Cesalpino to Linnaeus. 



The often-quoted work of Andrea Cesalpino l , ' De plantis 

 libri XVI,' appeared in Florence in the year 1583. If the 

 value of the contemporary German botanists lies pre-eminently 

 in the accumulation of descriptions of individual plants, and 

 these, it is true, occupy fifteen books of Cesalpino's work, it is 

 on the contrary the introduction in the first book, a discussion of 

 the general theory of the subject, which in his case is of much 

 the higher importance for the history of botany. This contains 

 in thirty pages a full and connected exposition of the whole of 

 theoretical botany, and though based on broad and general 

 views is at the same time extremely rich in matter conveyed in 

 a very concise form. The different branches into which the 

 subject has since been divided are here united into an insepar- 

 able whole ; morphology, anatomy, biology, physiology, syste- 

 matic botany, terminology are so closely combined, that it is 

 difficult to explain Cesalpino's views on any one more general 

 question without at the same time touching on a variety of 

 other matters. Three things more especially characterise this 

 introductory book ; first, a great number of new and delicate 

 observations ; secondly, the great importance which Cesalpino 

 assigns to the organs of fructification as objects of morpho- 

 logical investigation ; lastly, the way in which he philosophises 

 in strictly Aristotelian fashion on the material thus gained from 

 experience. If this treatment has produced a work beautiful 

 in style and fascinating to the reader, if the whole subject is 

 vivified by it while each separate fact gains a more general 

 value, it is on the other hand apparent that the writer is often 

 led astray by the well-known elements of the Aristotelian 

 philosophy, which are opposed to the interests of scientific 

 investigation. Mere creations of thought, the abstractions of 



1 Andrea Cesalpino (Caesalpinus) of Arezo was born in 1 519. He 

 was a pupil of Ghini and professor at Pisa, and afterwards physician to 

 Pope Clement VIII. He died in 1603. 



