160 Systematic Botany. 



reason he often omitted the discoveries of Tournefort, whom 

 he also viewed, and with justice, as his most powerful 

 rival. But the most remarkable instance of his oversight 

 is to be found in the lower orders of vegetables ; an obvious 

 example of which is afforded by Fungi, of which he 

 notices in the most perfect of his works 4, only 93 species, 

 at a time when Micheli had described nearly 800 species of 

 Agaricus, or at least of Pileate Fungi, peculiar to Italy alone. 

 For this reason, it follows that a just criterion of the number 

 of plants known in the days of Linnaeus can by no means be 

 formed from consulting that writer's works alone ; if, on the 

 contrary, we take into account his omissions, and deduct from 

 the Institutes of Tournefort one third for garden varieties which 

 are improperly ranked as species in that work, we shall be 

 justified in fixing the number of species actually described in 

 works of botany at the time of Linnaeus' s death, in the year 

 1778, at the following numbers : 



Species 



Described in the second edition of the Species Plantarum and 



the Mantissas 8800 



in the Institutes of Tournefort (not noticed by Linnaeus) 1000 



-in Micheli, and other authors upon cryptogamous 



plants (not noticed by Linnaeus) - 1000 



in the works of Hernandez, Piso, M orison, Ray, Bauhin, 



&c. being either not taken up or confounded with 



others by Linnaeus - - 800 



making the whole number of plants, of all kinds, actually de- 

 scribed at that time, amount to 11,600 or in round numbers 

 to 12,000 species. 



From the time of Linnaeus to the present moment the ad- 

 vance of botany has been so prodigious, that the number of 

 species of plants of all denominations now known cannot 

 be estimated at a sum short of 100,000. The elegance, 

 and the classical form bestowed upon the science by the 

 labours of the learned Swede, and by the more philosophical 

 principles of Jussieu, and of the French school of botany, have 

 given to the study of the vegetable world that rank among 

 the sciences which its actual importance demands. Princes 

 and potentates have become its patrons, and nobles its 

 professors ; vast sums have been expended in its support by 

 the governments of Spain, of France, of the various German 

 States, of Denmark, and of Russia ; and in Great Britain the 

 private munificence of individuals has amply compensated 

 for the indifference of the government. The advantages 

 arising from such powerful aid have not disappointed the ex- 

 pectations entertained from them ; and the rapid progress of 



