228 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



he employed for this purpose, were, the duration and size of plants; 

 presence, or absence offiowers; the number of cotyledons ; the situ- 

 ation of the seed, as erect or pendent ; the adherence of the pericarp 

 to the seeds ; the number of cells in the pericarp, and the number of 

 seeds which they contained ; the adherence of the calyx to the germ ; 

 and the nature of the root., whether bulbous, oy fibrous. This method 

 was too imperfect to be followed, having neither the simplicity nor 

 the unity to render its application useful. 



John Bauhin, though younger than Gesner, was his friend and 

 pupil ; he composed a general history of plants ; this was a work 

 evincing great learning and accurate investigations. Gaspard 

 Bauhin, the younger brother, no less active and learned, conceived 

 the design of a work which should contain a history of all known 

 plants, together with the different names which other writers had 

 applied to the same plant. Clusius and the elder Bauhin had ima- 

 gined something like a genus of plants, formed by the grouping of 

 similar species, but Gaspard Bauhin expressed this more decidedly 

 in remarks upon generic distinctions. His work, the result of forty 

 years' labour, was of great assistance to Linnaeus, in perfecting our 

 present system of Botany. 



We find, in looking back upon the labours of botanists during the 

 16th century, that more had been accomplislied than during any 

 former period ; the character of novelty and originality exhibited in 

 these researches, is highly creditable to those who thus led the way 

 in the march of improvement. 



The 17th century, in its commencement, was not favourable to the 

 sciences. Europe was agitated by continual wars, and the arts of 

 peace were neglected; but in the last part of that age, a taste for nat- 

 ural history revived ; men of highly gifted minds applied themselves 

 to the study of Botany, and many undertook long voyages, with the 

 sole design of examining foreign plants. Botanists were astonished 

 at the great number of interesting plants discovered by travellers, 

 in the region of South Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 in the East India Islands. 



Two Dutch botanists of the name of Commelin, who wrote about 

 this period, are commemorated in the beautiful genus C.ommelina, 

 first discovered in America. Bonnet* of Geneva, a close observer 

 of facts, wrote upon the " Nature and Offices of Leaves ;" and a work 

 entitled, " Contemplation of Nature, or the Regeneration of Beings.** 

 Two writers of the name of Camararius are distinguished in the 

 annals of the science for learning and ingenuity. Gaertner of Ger- 

 many wrote upon fruits, or, as he termed this department of the 

 science, Carpology, He dissected the fruits of more than a thou- 

 sand plants, the figures of which he designed and engraved. To 

 Gleditsch, professor of Botany at Frankfort, is dedicated the genus 

 Gleditscha. Rudbeck the younger, who preceded Linnaeus as pro- 

 fessor of Botany in Upsal, was, by the latter, commemorated in the 

 genus Rudbeckia. 



At this period, the plants of our own country began to excite tht 

 curiosity of scientific Europeans. Louis XIV. sent to America, 

 Plumier, a man celebrated for his mathematical and botanical knowl- 

 edge, and who was styled, botanist to the King. He made three 

 voyages, and gave drawings and descriptions of more American 

 species than any other traveller had done. 



* Pronounced Bonnay. 



Characters employed by him in the formation of classes— The Bauhins— Retrospect 

 of the 16th century— Botany in the 17th century. 



