BOTANY. 



Hitory. c iple of Fuchsius, travelled widely through Italy, 

 /~~" Switzerland, and the contiguous parts of France, and 

 made several discoveries. Caspar, who was almost 

 twenty years younger, followed at some distance of 

 time nearly in the same tract. And after each of 

 them had, in other respects, devoted the greater part 

 of a long life to the examination of the vegetable 

 kingdom, and had maturely consulted the writings 

 of their predecessors, they at length had the honour 

 of completing, in the well-digested result of their re- 

 pective labours, a more valuable present .to the sci- 

 ence, than it had hitherto received from any two in- 

 dividuals. 



John The principal work of John Bauhin, which was not 



Bauhin. however published till several years after his death, 



? r " , 1 /,. (though a Prodromus intended to convey some idea of 

 Died 1613. > . . i- \' i L 



its contents, made Us appearance earlier) was an elabo- 

 rate, General History of Plants, in 3 vols. fol. illustra- 

 ted with cuts. And with respect to this work, we can- 

 not express our opinion better than in the words of the 

 celebrated Haller, who, after glancing, in his Biltliothe- 

 ca Botanica, at a few defects in.it, such as the wrong 

 application of some of the figures, owing to the igno- 

 rance of the editor Chabrseus, continues thus : " Ve- 

 rum cum istis mendis, vix imputandis auctori, bonus 

 tamen et fidelis codex est, quern typis expressum ha- 

 benius ; etopusomnibus expensis, tamen hactenus sine 

 pari. Plants numcrosissimae, plerumque bene de- 

 scriptae, cum collectis omnium scriptorum locis, non 

 absque critico judicio, et in unum magno cum judicii 

 acumine collecta, qua; ad eo tempora de plantis inno- 

 tuerant. Eo opere Rajus plurimum usus est, et non 

 bene Bauhino exprobatur, novas plantas non continere, 

 uam continet plurimas, et ex magnis illis generibus, 

 parum hactenus excultis, quas vel ipse invenerat, vel 

 gener J. Henricus Cherler. Rarum in eo vitium est, 

 etiam in vasto opere, plantam eamdam duobus nomi- 

 nibusrepetitam reperire. Varietates non amavit, con- 

 fusas veterum descriptiones sagax evolvit, et, quae 

 extricare non poterat, intacta deseruit." 



Caspar Caspar Bauhin, on the other hand, besides impro- 



Sauhin. ving the nomenclature, and giving proofs of his skill 

 born 1560. as a botanist in some other valuable works, was au- 

 Died 1624. t j, or O f one ; n p art j cu i arj j n wn ich he undertook to 

 give an enumeration of all known plants, with the 

 synonymes of preceding writers, accompanied with 

 notes and observations of his own : and by the suc- 

 cess which attended his endeavours, he gave a cer- 

 tain form and consistence to the sciepce, and was 

 long after referred to as the guide of his successors. 

 The work itself, which may be considered as an in- 

 dispensable key to the writings of the older botanists, 

 and was peculiarly serviceable, we are told, even to 

 Linnaeus, was the result of forty years labour, and 

 appeared at Basle in 1623, under the title of Pinax 

 t/ieatri botanici, seu index in Theophrasti, Disco- 

 ridis, Plinii et botanicorum, gui a seculo scripserant, 

 opera, plantarum fere sex millium nomina cum syno- 

 /lymiis et differentia'. A Prodromus of it had, how- 

 ever, been published at the same place in 1596, under 

 the title of Phyto Pinax. To what has been thus said 

 with respect to the works of the younger Bauhin, 

 we shall only subjoin, for the sake of information, 

 the character given to him as a botanist, contrasted 

 ' id) his brother, by the very competent judge whom 



we have just now referred to. His words are the fol- 

 lowing : " Caspar Bauhinus, multis annis fratre suo 

 junior, (anno domum 1560 natus), et in re herbaria 

 acmulus, in Colligendo laboriosus, in iconibus feli- 

 cior, plantarum numero superior, a discipulis et ab 

 amicis multis omnino symbolisditior,multo minus acuti 

 vero judicii, in admittendis varietatibus, in repetendis 

 cum diversis nominibus iisdem plantis facilis, in de- 

 scriptionibus etiam minus accuratis, classium natura- 

 lium minus studiosus, in eo mecum in felix, quod 

 tempora sua cum anatome partiri sit coactus." 



As to those botanists who were immediately pos- 

 terior to the Bauhins, or who followed them at a 

 greater distance for the space of more than half a 

 century, it is not necessary that we should enter 

 much into detail. Their labours, though useful, were 

 not in general marked by any peculiar skill, or at- 

 tended by any very remarkable consequences. Adrian 

 Spigelius, a celebrated Italian, who was nearly con- 

 temporary with Caspar Bauhin, and had travelled 

 widely through his native country in the disguise ot 

 a peasant, that he might have a better opportunity 

 of exploring the vegetable kingdom, published a 

 work of some value, entitled, In rein herbarium Isa- 

 goge. Paul Reneaulme, a Frenchman, shortly after- 

 wards produced a work of a similar nature, entitled 

 Specimen Historic*: Plantarum, in which, besides in- 

 troducing some good figures, he evinced a very con- 

 siderable talent for observation and description, ta- 

 king notice, among other things, of the inequality of 

 the stamens. Basilius Besler, an apothecary at Nu- 

 remburg, with the assistance of his brother Hierony- 

 mus, wrote about the same time, the Hortus Eystet- 

 tensis, or, An Account of the Plants cultivated in the 

 Bishop's Garden at Aichstaedt in Germany, which, 

 after having been revised by the well-known Ludwig 

 .lungermann, successively professor at Giessen and 

 Altdorf, was published at the expense of the bishop, 

 John Conrad de Gemmingen, in the most splendid 

 style ; the descriptions being illustrated by 265 beau- 

 tiful copperplates. Jungermann himself, besides be- 

 ing the editor of the vvorkj now mentioned, had the 

 merit of appearing in the character of an original 

 writer : For he composed a catalogue of the plants 

 growing spontaneously round Altdorf, which was first 

 published in 1615, by Caspar Hoffman, an acute and 

 learned contemporary, who made several amendments 

 on it ; and afterwards republished, about the year 

 1646, under his own eye, with the important addition 

 of those plants, among others, which were cultivated 

 at that time in the university garden. He likewise 

 wrote an account of the plants in the district of 

 Giessen, which appeared under the title of Cornu- 

 copia: Florae Giessensis, proventu Spontancorum Stir- 

 pium cum Flora Altdorfensi nomine conspirantis : 

 And to say nothing of his merit in preparing two 

 other catalogues relating to the plants growing round 

 Leipsic and Frankfort on the Mayne, which were 

 never published, he left behind him an Herbarium of 

 no less than 2000 dried specimens, which still remains 

 at Altdorf as a proof of his industry. 



In 1628, Guy de la Brosse, physician at Paris, 

 who had lately procured the establishment of the 

 royal garden there, from Louis XIII., produced the 

 first catalogue of the plants growing 'in it. Seven 



History. 



Spigelius. 

 Bopi 157S. 

 Died 16i'5. 



Reneaul- 

 me. 



Besler. 

 Born 1607. 

 Died 1629. 



Junger- 

 mann. 

 Corn 1. 172. 

 Died 



Deh 

 Brosse. 

 A.D. : 



