THE LITERATURE OF BOTANY. 133 



now but smile at the amount of astrological superstitions 

 with which it is laden, and given in good faith. It has 

 passed through many editions, has had, and still continues 

 to have, a large circulation among the humbler classes of 

 society, and in country districts an acquaintance with 

 Culpeper is deemed necessary to a knowledge of the 

 nature and properties of plants. 



I now come to an important book, " The Anatomy of 

 Plants," by Nehemiah Grew, Fellow of the Royal Society 

 of Physicians, 1682. It is dedicated to King Charles II. 

 There is really some system in this book. The true nature 

 of the sexual organs in plants is here demonstrated, the 

 important difference between seeds with one and those with 

 two cotyledons being here first pointed out. Clear and distinct 

 ideas of the causes of vegetable phenomena are developed, 

 and a foundation laid on which the best theories of vege- 

 tation have been established by subsequent botanists. 



A few years later the French botanist Tournefort, then 

 Professor of Botany at the Jardin des Plantes, published 

 his " Elements of Botany," being the first attempt to define 

 the exact limits of genera in vegetables. He at the same 

 time announced a system for the classification of plants, 

 and contributed very largely to the advancement of the 

 science. 



About this time, while Tournefort was engaged in 

 arranging his system of plants, and Grew had completed 

 his, John Ray appeared, and in his " Historia Plantarum," 

 1686, the real foundation of all the modern views are 

 found. While he thus enumerated the true principles of 

 classification he laid the foundations of the inductive system 

 which has since distinguished the English school of botany. 



