Progress of Botany. 39 



A Sketch of the Progress of Botany in the Nine- 

 teenth Century. 



Being the Substance of the Somerville Lecture delivered on 

 March 13, 1902, and now published at the request of 

 the Natural History Socicti/. 



It is not claiming too much for Botany to say that it 

 kept pace with the most progressive of the Sciences in the 

 last hundred years. Its domain during that period was 

 vastly extended both from a theoretical and practical 

 point of view. Botany as we now know it has, indeed* 

 been largely the product of the nineteenth century. If 

 we look into systematic treatises on the science published 

 a century ago, or into the Botanical Journals of that 

 period, and compare them with those belonging to the 

 present day, we are struck with the very great difference 

 between them, and conclude that Botany occupies quite 

 another plane from that on which it stood at the begin- 

 ning of the last century. Then the main object sought 

 was the collecting and identifying of plants and discussing 

 their geographical distribution ; and attention was con- 

 fined mostly to the phanerogamous families and to the 

 outstanding features of plants. When a treatise on 

 Botany of our time is taken up, or a Botanical Journal is 

 examined, it is found that the starting point of the study 

 of the science is entirely altered, and that the differentia- 

 tion of the science is carried into the minutest details. 



In 1801, the artificial system, founded by Linnaeus, was 

 still in vogue ; and there were enthusiastic collectors 

 working away in accordance with it, constantly adding 

 to the number of determined species. But the limitations 

 of the Linnsean system hampered progress. It was found 

 inadequate for classifying the lower forms of life, as they 

 came to he more fully known and needed to be dealt 

 with. 



The first very important step in advance was, there- 



