324 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



a description of that island composed by the French 

 Commandant Flacourt 30 . Shortly afterwards, Engel- 

 bert Ksempfer 31 , a Westphalian of great acquire- 

 ments and undaunted courage, visited Persia, Arabia 

 Felix, the Mogul Empire, Ceylon, Bengal, Sumatra, 

 Java, Siam, Japan ; Wheler travelled in Greece and 

 Asia Minor ; and Sherard, the English consul, pub- 

 lished an account of the plants of the neighbour- 

 hood of Smyrna. 



At the same time, the New World excited also 

 the curiosity of botanists. Hans Sloane collected 

 the plants of Jamaica ; John Banister those of Vir- 

 ginia; William Vernon, also an Englishman, and 

 David Kriege, a Saxon, those of Maryland; two 

 Frenchmen, Surian and Father Plumier, those of 

 Saint Domingo. 



We may add that public botanical gardens were 

 about this time established all over Europe. We 

 have already noticed the institution of that of Pisa 

 in 1543; the second was that of Padua in 1545; 

 the next, that of Florence in 1556 ; the fourth, that 

 of Bologna, 1568 ; that of Rome, in the Vatican, 

 dates also from 1568. 



The first transalpine garden of this kind arose at 

 Leyden in 1577 ; that of Leipsic in 1580. Henry 

 the Fourth of France established one at Montpellier 

 in 1597. Several others were instituted in Ger- 

 many ; but that of Paris did not begin to exist till 



30 Histoire de la grande Isle Madagascar, Paris, 1661. 



31 Amcenilatefi Exoticce, Lemgov. 1712. 4to. 



