THE RENAISSANCE 137 



the main configuration of continents and oceans, the 

 work of the later navigators is remarkable for the 

 growth of the scientific spirit of observation. 

 ' William Dampier (1653-1715) in particular showed 

 the new attitude of mind. His keen eye noted every 

 strange bird and beast, every new tree and plant, and 

 his facile pen described their forms and hue with 

 marvellous accuracy and recorded them in his volumes 

 of Voyages. His Discourse on Winds became a classic 

 of meteorology, and Humboldt, long afterwards, 

 praised him as the best hydrographer of his age. 



The development of medicine in the treatment of dis- 

 ease by drugs soon reacted on the knowledge of plants, 

 originally a province of the traditional 



B Namral ld lore of monastery and convent garden. 



History. Mediaeval symbolism was slow to loose its 



grip of the plant world, where it took the form of the 



doctrine of " signatures," and regarded the shape of 



the leaf or the colour of a flower as an index or sign of 



the use for which the plant had been intended by its 



Creator. However, the increased security of life led 



to the laying out of private gardens and parks, and to 



the more general cultivation of trees, vegetables and 



flowers. Thus, partly owing to the use of herbs as 



remedies, partly to natural curiosity and to a growing 



love of beauty and colour, made possible by the 



advances in ordered existence, the sixteenth century 



saw a great development in botanical knowledge. 



Medicine, virtually freed from the control of the 



Church, soon acquired its own gathering grounds and 



distilleries. Botanic gardens were established at 



Padua in 1545, and afterwards at Pisa, Leyden and 



