90 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



' Prosperi Alpini de plantis JEgypti,' which was published 

 at Venice in 1592. It contains a number of wood-cuts, 

 which appear to be original. The one reproduced (Text- 

 fig. 47) represents Salicornia, the Glasswort. The author 

 was a doctor who went to Egypt with the Venetian consul, 

 Giorgio Emo, and had opportunities of collecting plants 

 there. He is said to have been the first European writer 

 to mention the Coffee plant, which he saw growing at Cairo. 

 Prospero Alpino eventually became Professor of Botany at 

 Padua, and enriched the botanical garden of that town with 

 Egyptian plants. 



4. The Herbal in Switzerland. 



Among the many scientific men, whose names are 

 associated with Switzerland, one of the most renowned is 

 Konrad Gesner (Plate X), who was born at Zurich in 15 16, 

 the son of a poor furrier. His taste for botany was due, 

 in the first instance, to the influence of his uncle, a protestant 

 preacher. Konrad went to France to study medicine, but 

 in Paris, the richness of the libraries, and the delight of 

 associating with learned men, tempted him away from his 

 special subject into a course of omnivorous reading. After 

 an interval of school teaching at Zurich, he betook himself 

 to Basle, where he entered more methodically upon the 

 study of medicine, at the same time attempting to support 

 himself by working at a Latin dictionary. However, after 

 a short period of student life, he found the expense too 

 great, and was obliged to abandon it, and to take a post as 

 teacher of classics in Lausanne. He had received assistance 

 at different times from his native town, which again came 

 to his help at this juncture, and generously allotted to him 

 a " Reisestipendium," for the continuance of his medical 

 studies. He indeed owed much to Zurich, for, after taking 

 his doctorate, he was appointed first to the professorship of 

 Philosophy there, and then to that of Natural History, 

 which he held until he died of the plague in his forty-ninth 

 year. 



Gesner's most remarkable characteristic was his ver- 

 satility and encyclopaedic knowledge ; he has been called 

 the Pliny of his time. His work on bibliographical and 



