PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 217 



instrument and an object ; the eye has then only to be 

 kept above the eyepiece for the observer to be au fait. 

 Link, in the preface to his Anatomical Plates, expresses 

 this thoroughly false view as follows : ' I have generally 

 intrusted the observations entirely to my draughtsman, 

 M. Schmidt, and thus the unprejudiced condition of the 

 observer, who is unacquainted with botanical theories, 

 vouches for the accuracy of the drawings/ The result 

 of this perversion is, that Link's phytotomical plates, not- 

 withstanding his celebrated name, are so useless, that the 

 beginner, at least, must be strongly warned in learning 

 from them, to avoid his being confused by representations 

 which are entirely false. Link might as well have asked 

 a child, or a congenitally-blind person who had just been 

 operated upon, the apparent distance of the moon, and 

 from their freedom from prejudice, have expected the best 

 judgment, just as if in our early years of childhood we com- 

 mence learning to see with our unaided eyes," &c. I must 

 subjoin here the preface to my Anatomico-botanical Plates 

 (Pt. i, 1837) : " The anatomy of the human body only 

 first began to make the great advances in which it now 

 rejoices, when philosophers began to have the appearances 

 delineated by skilful artists. I followed this course as 

 far as I was able. For philosophers are seldom good 

 draughtsmen, and even when they do understand the art, 

 they have no time for its exercise. Hence it very fre- 

 quently happens that they draw what they have never 

 seen, or what they fancy they have seen under the mis- 

 guidance of some theory. This is especially the case 

 when the objects can only be seen under the microscope. 

 The most proper person for this purpose is a skilful artist 

 who is unacquainted with anatomical science, and who 

 must not be told what he is to see. A young artist, 

 C. H. Schmidt, who is a flower-pain ter, has for seven 

 years drawn for me the internal structures of plants, as 

 seen under the microscope. After he had become accus- 

 tomed to the microscope, I told him that he must only 

 draw what he saw, and always unhesitatingly contradict 





