214 *' fifarfcen's Sbtorj. 



Desoxydationsprocess " ! Is it any wonder it 

 requires a " scholar of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge," to translate a German scientist ? 



The first stimulus to more exact observation 

 and distinction of plants was necessity to know 

 the countless medicinal species and to avoid con- 

 founding them with others. The old herb- 

 gatherers were the first botanists. But since 

 Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides, who 

 were herbalists rather than botanists, how much 

 is the present system and knowledge of this sci- 

 ence indebted to the Germans ! What flowers 

 have not been analyzed through their busy mag- 

 nifying glass beginning with Brunfels and 

 Fuchs ; continued by Erhart, Hoffmann, Kom- 

 pler, Rumph, Hermann, Schreber, Sprengel, 

 Gb'the, Humboldt ; and followed by Meisner, 

 Endlicher, Meyen, Link, Schleiden, Von Mohl, 

 Seubert, Miiller, and others ! 



To all who would look beneath the surface 

 and grasp the real purport and significance of 

 flowers, Hermann Miiller's volume, " The Fertili- 

 zation of Flowers," recently translated into Eng- 

 lish, will be found of signal interest. Christian 

 Sprengel, in 1787, was the pioneer to discover 

 these fundamental truths : 



i. The nectar of most flowers is secreted 

 for the sake of insects, and is protected from 



