. (2.) Lysimachia radicans, n. sp.; 
- humifusa elongata laxa, ramis api 
- dicantibus, folis oppositis lanceolato- 
. acuminatis summi is omnibus 
ue —Covington. 
794. (1) Samolus Valerandi, L.—N. 
(n. 268.) 
tox. 
ET. (To be continued.) 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 
| PRO 
By M. H. c. BoNGARD, Associate of the Academy. 
(Translated from the Recueil des Actes de Petersbourg, 
; de 1834. ) 
__ THE degree of perfection which the Na- 
tural Sciences have attained in our times, 
nts a most agreeable subject of con- 
templation to those who delight in tracing 
the wonders of nature, and in observing 
the progressive course of human know- 
The march of civilization, the im- 
b 
seen vying with one another in their 
vours to promote the cause of science 
L z m peu ^ m 
ven 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF BOTANY IN RUSSIA. _ 
* 
177 
in all parts of the globe, and braving un- 
numbered dangers in the prosecution of 
this object. Hence, immense treasures of 
various kinds have poured into our collec- 
tions, and these, when studied, and com- 
pared by men of observation, have con- 
duced to the most important discoveries. 
It is well known how much Zoology, Geo- 
logy, and Mineralogy have thus been the 
gainers, 
Botany has had its share in these valua- 
ble acquisitions, and perhaps the fairest 
y and most important of them have fallen to 
its lot. 
If we consider that when Linneus, 
eighty years ago, published, for the first 
time, his Species Plantarum, scarcely se- 
ven thousand vegetables were known, and 
that this great botanist estimated the total 
number of plants on the surface of the 
earth, as not amounting to more than ten 
thousand species—we are struck with asto- 
nishment at seeing that their number now 
exceeds sixty thousand. Thus the herba- 
rium of Linneus, the richest then known, 
contained but seven thousand plants, a 
number which would now form a very poor 
collection, many of the larger ones consist- 
ing of from thirty to forty thousand species, 
and even more. This prodigious augmen- - 
tation of new vegetables has exercised an 
essential influence on the progress of sci- 
ence. A multitude of novel and extraor- 
dinary forms, with an infinite variety in the 
structure of their parts, have been observ- 
ed, which have necessarily led to a deeper 
insight into their structure, as well as to a. 
more exact acquaintance with those natural 
affinities, by which plants are united to one 
another. The Linnean System has thus. 
been replaced by a philosophical classifi- 
cation, called the Natural Arrangement. 
A more intimate acquaintance with ve- 
getable organization has thrown great light 
on the mysteries of the vegetable economy, 
while the ingenious improvements that 
have been effected in the construction of ~ 
microscopes, promise gtadually to dissipate. 
the obscurity which still envelops this diffi- 
cult but important branch of the science, 
and to afford much information on the s 
M ES 
