60 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



1542 from the press of Isingrin of Basle, under the title 

 1 De historia stirpium.' This was a Latin herbal dealing 

 with about four hundred native German, and one hundred 

 foreign plants, and was followed in the succeeding year by 

 a German edition, called the ' New Kreuterbuch.' Of all 

 the botanists of the Renaissance, Fuchs is perhaps the one 

 who deserves most to be held in honour. He is notably 

 L superior to his two predecessors in matters calling for 

 scholarship, such as the critical study of the plant nomen- 

 clature of classical authors. His herbal rivals, or even 

 surpasses, that of Brunfels in its illustrations, and that of 

 Bock in its German text. The letter-press of the Latin 

 . edition is, on the whole, inferior to the German, the brief 

 descriptions being often taken word for word from previous 

 writers. 



The Latin edition opens, however, with a long and 

 most interesting preface, in singularly pure and fine Latin. 

 Fuchs is keenly indignant at the ignorance of herbs dis- 

 played even by medical men. His outburst on this subject 

 may be literally translated as follows : — " But, by Immortal 

 God, is it to be wondered at that kings and princes do not 

 at all regard the pursuit of the investigation of plants, when 

 even the physicians of our time so shrink from it that 

 it is scarcely possible to find one among a hundred who 

 has an accurate knowledge of even so many as a few 

 J plants ? " 



That Fuchs' work was indeed a labour of love is a 

 1 conviction that must force itself upon everyone who studies 

 I'fris herbal, and it is further borne out by his own words in 

 the preface — words which bear the stamp of a lively 

 enthusiasm : " But there is no reason why I should dilate 

 at greater length upon the pleasantness and delight of 

 acquiring knowledge of plants, since there is no one 

 who does not know that there is nothing in this life 

 pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods, 

 mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets 

 and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and 

 to gaze intently upon them. But it increases that pleasure 

 and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance 

 with the virtues and powers of these same plants." 



The wood-cuts which illustrate Fuchs' herbal are of 



