10 



BOTANY. 



History. 



Paul Her 

 man. 



its author; for he added, like him, to the knowledge 

 of exotic plants, by describing in the Hortus Amslelo- 

 dameasis, a considerable number which were at that 

 time cultivated in the botanical garden there, and 

 which the extensive connection of his countrymen 

 with the East and West Indies had enabled him to 

 procure. Dr Paul Herman, a native of Saxony, con- 

 tributed likewise to promote the same object. For 

 iJorn 1640. j n consequence of a long residence in Ceylon, and af- 

 Uied 1695. tenvarc ] s a j the Cape- of Good Hope, as a physician, 

 he had an opportunity of making a very large and 

 valuable collection of rare plants, which he brought 

 with him to Leyden, where, on his return to Europe, 

 he became professor of botany. Of these, part were 

 enumerated in his catalogue of the plants growing in 

 the botanical garden at Leyden : Others were de- 

 scribed in the Paradisus liatavus, a work edited by 

 Sherrard. Sherrard, in 1698, which had been designed to con- 

 tain an account of many unknown plants of different 

 countries, accompanied with plates, but which the 

 author did not live to complete. And, to say no- 

 thing of a multitude of specimens which he left be- 

 hind him, without being able to make any use of 

 them, those which he gathered in Ceylon, more par- 

 ticularly, were first described by himself in the Mu- 

 seum Zeylanicum, another posthumous, and therefore 

 incomplete publication, but illustrated with beautiful 

 engravings ; and have since that time been ably cha- 

 racterised by Linnaeus, into whose hands they came 

 along with the original plates, in his Flora Zcylanica. 

 With the names of the three preceding botanists, we 

 Caspar may here connect that of Caspar, nephew of John 

 eommelyn. Commelyn, and successor to him in the professor- 

 ^"d 17'']' S ^'P at Amsterdam ; for, although a little posterior to 

 ' them, he directed his attention chiefly to the same de- 

 partment of botanical knowledge ; and is known, both 

 as the author of the Florae Matabaricee, or General In- 

 dex, to the Hortiis Malabaricus, and as the editor of 

 the second volume of his uncle's great work, the Horlus 

 Medicos Amstelodamensis. Nor can we forbear to 

 mention, with due praise, the more diversified and in- 

 Plunkenet. defatigable industry of Dr Leonard Plunkenet, physi- 

 Born 1642.' cian in London, and inspector of the Royal Garden at 

 Died 1706. Hampton Court, who died in 1706; for by gathering 

 from every quarter, he became possessed of many 

 plants, both foreign and indigenous, which were not 

 known to any other botanist of his time. His Herba- 

 rium is even supposed to have consisted of no less than 

 8000 specimens; and of these, part were described by 

 him in various publications, which evince great indus- 

 try, but in which it is a matter of regret that, from his 

 want of systematic skill, he did not turn his mate- 

 Petiver r ' a ' s to l ^ e ^ est account - James Petiver, an opulent 

 Died i7i8. mercnant of London, and Fellow of the Royal So- 

 ciety, who was nearly contemporary with Plunkenet, 

 and a great lover of natural history, published also a 

 good deal on plants, but with a similar defect of me- 

 thod : and to say nothing of the labours of some 

 others, Rodolf Camerarius, professor at Tubingen, a 

 man of no ordinary genius, who was born in 1665, 

 and died in 17.21, was engaged, about the same time, 

 Born 1665. ' n making the first experiments on the sexes of plants. 

 Died 1721. " Experimenta fecit," says Hallcr, " in floribus 

 Ricini et Mayz ; et semina detractis staminibus steri- 

 lescere repent, ut omnino in antheris sexuntrnascu- 



Rodolf 

 Camera- 



lum posuerit. Plantas masculas fcminas, et andro- Ii 

 gynas constituit, has numerosissimas." 



While, however, the greater part of Morison's 

 contemporaries, and of those who succeeded him, for 

 the space of about thirty years, were thus advancing 

 the interests of botany in the less scientific way of 

 their predecessors, as above stated, there were a few 

 of them, and these, too, of no uncommon fame, who, 

 in pursuing the same object, endeavoured, like Mo- 

 rison, to combine the advantages of method with dis- 

 covery. Herman, for instance, whose merits in an- Herman's 

 other respect, we have just now taken notice of, con- mc 'd. 

 trived a system, which was made known to the pub- 

 lic in 1696, a year after his death, by Zumbac, ha- 

 ving the fruit and flower, and occasionally the exter- 

 nal appearance, for its basis. It does not appear that 

 he acted on it himself, and we have accordingly rather 

 classed him with those who did not take advantage 

 of method ; but the plants in the academical garden 

 at Leyden, were arranged according to it by his suc- 

 cessor in 25 classes ; four of them being made to 

 consist of trees, and the rest of herbs, which were 

 again distinguished under the threefold division of 

 herbs with naked seeds, herbs with seed-vessels, and 

 herbs with petals : And this was the beginning of 

 systematic botany in Holland. Another botanist of 

 this period, who studied,- in advancing the science, to 

 unite the advantages of method with discovery and 

 description, was Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, pro- Qmrinus 

 fessor at Leipsic, where he died in 1722. This gen- Rlvmus - ^ 

 tleman, who appears from his writings, to have pos- piej 17.^. 

 sessed an original and superior way of thinking, con- 

 ceived the design, of preparing and publishing a series 

 of engravings illustrative of all the known species of 

 plants, accompanied with short descriptions; and by 

 way of introduction to the accomplishment of it, he 

 submitted to the public, in 1690, a method of his 

 own contriving, which he purposed to follow in the 

 distribution ot them. Before his time, it had been 

 the aim of all systematic writers to follow nature, 

 and to arrange plants, as much as possible, according 

 to their affinities; a circumstance which, though it 

 doubtless gave a more pleasing cast to their systems, 

 made them at the same time less easy in practice, 

 from the multiplication of character. Quirinus per- Rivimis'j 

 ceived this ; and being of opinion that an arrange- arr ange- 

 ment purely artificial would answer the purpose bet- mc " t> 

 ter, " he renounced the pursuit of affinities, and was 

 the first," to use the language of Mr Milne, " who 

 set about a method, which should atone, by its faci- 

 lity, for the want of numerous relations, and natural 

 families." Instead of the fruit, which had been hi- 

 therto used, and which possessed less variety, he 

 made choice of the flower, as the ground-work of 

 his system ; and neglecting the hackneyed distinc- 

 tion of trees and herbs, as marring the uniformity of 

 his plan, he distributed all plants into 18 classes, the 

 characters being taken from the number and regular 

 rity of the petals. His system was as follows : 



Flares Regulares. 



1. Monopetali. 



2. Dipetali. 



3. Tripetali. 



4. Tetrapetali. 



