16 



BOTANY. 



History, plants, for the formation of genera, upon a very ex- 

 l -y-.J tensive scale. The improvement which he thus in- 

 troduced into the science appeared so considerable, 

 that it was immediately adopted generally by his 

 contemporaries, and has been gratefully acknowled- 

 ged ever siuce. And an author, whose opinion should 

 have great weight, has lately expressed himself on 

 the subject, in the following manner : " The first 

 great and successful attempt to define the genera of 

 plants, was made by Tournefort ; and in this his 

 transcendant merit will ever be conspicuous, though 

 his system of arrangement should be entirely forgot- 

 ten. Not that he has excelled in herbal definitions, 

 nor built all his genera on sure foundations ; but his 

 figures, and his enumerations of species under each 

 genus, show the clearness of his conceptions, and 

 rank him as the father of this branch of botany." 



The science having been thus put upon a better 

 footing, in consequence of the ideas of method sug- 

 gested by the botanists just now mentioned, and at 

 i the same time enriched by the fruit of their labours, 



began to be cultivated with still greater interest. Fa- 

 flumier. ther Plumier, a native of Marseilles, adopting the 

 Born 16'16. system of Tournefort, with whom he was contempo- 

 rary, made three voyages to America and the West 

 Indies, in order to examine the animal and vegetable 

 productions of these parts : and so well did he ac- 

 complish the object which he had in view, that, be- 

 sides leaving behind him a numerous collection of 

 plants, drawings, and MSS. which are still preserved 

 in the national library at Paris, he had an opportu- 

 nity, during his lifetime, of favouring the world with 

 several excellent publications, the last of which, on the 

 filices or ferns of America, is still regarded as the 

 best on the subject. 



Sir Hans Hans Sloane, an Irishman, but of Scotch extrac- 

 Sloanc. tion, who had studied medicine in France, and was at 

 Bom 1GGO. a later period of his life created a baronet, and raised 

 1(53. to ^ p res j(j encv o f the Royal Society, in compli- 

 ment to his merit, made a voyage to the same quar- 

 ter, in capacity of physician to the E.irl of Albe- 

 marle, governor of the British West Indian islands. 

 Availing himself of the opportunity given him by the 

 Earl's touching at Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, and St 

 Christophers, he collected several plants of these 

 islands ; and on his arrival at Jamaica, he laboured 

 with so much zeal to procure and discover specimens, 

 that on his return to Europe, three years afterwards, 

 he brought along with him an herbarium of no less 

 than 800. These he first enumerated, with the addi- 

 tion of their synonymes, in a catalogue which was 

 published in 1696, and afterwards described and il- 

 lustrated with plates in the order of Ray, in his Na- 

 tural History of Jamaica, the first vol. of which ap- 

 peared in 1707, and the second in 1727. Nor can 

 we forbear to add, that this very eminent naturalist, 

 who was a lover and patron of science in all its 

 branches, and distinguished by a peculiar suavity 

 of manners, continued through the course of a long 

 life to foster merit, and to gather from all quarters 

 whatever was curious, or tended to throw light upon 

 the animal and mineral, as well as the vegetable king- 

 doms. This invaluable collection, together with 

 ki library, he bequeathed at his death, which u>ok 



plate in 1753, to the British Museum, to be kept in History, 

 trust for the use of the public. ^ ~ -* 



Louis Feuillee, too, a Franciscan friar, and member F eu ;n^ e> 

 of the Academy of Sciences, a roan of superior abili- 

 ties, having gone a few years after Sloane to th; same 

 part of the world, travelled long, at the expence of 

 the king of France, in the West Indies and South 

 America. The object of his laborious and widely 

 extended researches there, was no doubt very much 

 physical and mathematical ; but he also paid a great 

 deal of attention to the vegetable kingdom, collecting 

 many plants which were unknown at that time in 

 Europe, in the course of his travels, more especially 

 along the maritime districts of Chili and Peru. And 

 by communicating his discoveries to the public in 

 1714 and 1725, in a register of his proceedings enti- 

 tled, Journal des Observations Physiques, Mathema- 

 tiques et Botaniques,faites par ordre duRoi, sur cotes 

 Occidentals de I'Amcrigue Meridionals, &c. he con- 

 tributed not a little to what was then known of the 

 flora of the western hemisphere. 



On the other hand, a good deal was done about K Emp f er 

 the same time towards illustrating the botany of the Born 165! 

 East, by Englebert Kzmpfer and John Christian Died 171L 1 . 

 Baxbaum, natives of Germany. Ksmpfer, who was 

 of the country of Lippe, and had evinced from his in- 

 fancy the most insatiable thirst for every sort of 

 physical knowledge, travelled ten years ; first in the 

 train of the Russian ambassador going to Persia, and 

 afterwards by himself, through Russia, Persia, Ara- 

 bia, the peninsula of India, Siam, Java, Sumatra, and 

 Japan. In the course of these travels, particularly in 

 the island of Japan, where he spent two whole years, 

 he made very extensive discoveries, and procured a 

 vast fund of information ; being, as Haller informs 

 us, <( Ad omnem laborem impiger, neque sibi par- 

 cens, quoties veri detegendi spes erat." He like- 

 wise possessed, in a very eminent degree, a talent for 

 delineation. He was enabled to enrich his collection 

 with many beautiful drawings. But it is a matter of 

 deep regret, that on his return to his native country, 

 where he continued to practise as a physician till his 

 death in 1719, he was prevented, either by want of 

 encouragement, or some other caust which we are. 

 not able to explain, from gratifying the public to 

 the extent which might have been expected, with 

 the fruit of his researches. A valuable work, con- 

 taining part of them, was indeed published by him- 

 self, under the title of Amcenilates Exotica; in five 

 Fasciculi ; and within these twenty years, Sir Joseph 

 Banks, who has long appeared to such advantage as 

 the patron of science, has favoured us with select 

 plates, taken from the originals in the British Mu- 

 seum, representing a considerable number of plants, 

 which he had collected and delineated in the island 

 of Japan. But the sixth Fasciculus of his great 

 work, embracing some account of the plants grow 

 ing beyond the Ganges, with 500 figures, and al- 

 most every thing else in his invaluable treasury, 

 which he had designed for publication, have disap- 

 peared, and are, we have reason to fear, irrecover- 

 ably lost. Baxbaum again, who was of Mercburg 8axl>auni. 

 in Saxony, and had already written a pretty good Born lew 

 enumeration of the flora round Halle, accompanied ^ ied 1 7a< 



