92 The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



those of Fuchs. The undertaking was so far advanced that 

 some of the figures had been drawn upon the wood, and 

 certain blocks had even been engraved. The whole collec- 

 tion, and the manuscripts, he bequeathed for publication to 

 his friend Caspar Wolf. Wolf seems to have made an 

 honest effort to carry out Gesner's wishes, and he succeeded 

 in publishing a few of the wood-cuts, as an appendix 

 to Simler's ' Vita Conradi Gesneri ' (e.g. Text-fig. 48). 

 Unfortunately he was hampered by weak health, and the 

 task, as a whole, proved beyond his powers. He sold 

 everything to Joachim Camerarius the younger, with the 

 proviso that the purchaser should make himself responsible 

 for the publication. Camerarius failed to fulfil the spirit of 

 this obligation. It is true that he brought a large number 

 of Gesner's figures before the public, but he did this only 

 by the indirect method of using them, among his own 

 drawings, to illustrate an edition of Mattioli, and a book of 

 his own. 



j Finally, about a hundred and fifty years after the death 

 I of Camerarius, Gesner's drawings and blocks came into the 

 possession of the eighteenth-century botanist and biblio- 

 grapher, Christoph Jacob Trew, who published them, thus 

 giving Gesner his due so far as was possible at that late 

 date. Such blocks as were in good condition were printed 

 directly, and, from the drawings, a number of copper engrav- 

 ings were made, coloured like the originals. The drawings 

 were of unequal merit, some of them being on a very small 

 scale and lacking in clearness. In one point, however, 

 Gesner shows a marked advance on the methods of his 

 contemporaries — namely in giving detailed, analysed studies 

 of flower and fruit structure, as well as a drawing showing 

 the habit of the plant. It must not be forgotten that, 

 even in Trew's edition, it is impossible to discriminate 

 with certainty between the work of Gesner and that of 

 Camerarius. 



Unfortunately, we have no knowledge of the text of 

 Gesner's manuscript, but his letters make it clear that his 

 interest in botany was thoroughly scientific. If his work 

 were extant, he would probably shine as a discoverer of 

 new species, especially among alpines, for his figures indi- 

 cate that he was acquainted with a number of plants which 



