VI] System of d'Aldchamps 143 



by the recognition of the fact that the structure and mode 

 of life of the plants themselves are of importance. In the 

 work of writers such as Dodoens and d'Al^champs, to take 

 two typical examples, we find the issues curiously confused by 

 the working of three different principles side by side ; that 

 is to say, by the simultaneous insistence (i) on the habitat, 

 (ii) on the "virtues," and (iii) on the structure, as affording 

 clues to the systematic position of the plant in question. 

 The herbalist thus erects his scheme on a basis consisting 

 of a confused medley of ecological, medical, and morpho- 

 logical principles. An enumeration of the eighteen headings, 

 under which d'Al^champs, in 1586, described the vegetable 

 kingdom, so far as it was then known, will show the 

 perplexities which surrounded the first gropings after 

 a natural system. His headings may be translated as 

 follows : — 



I. Of trees which grow wild in woods. 



II. Of fruits growing wild in thickets and shrub- 



beries. 



III. Of trees which are cultivated in pleasure gardens 



and orchards. 



IV. Of cereals and pulse, and the plants which grow 



in the field with them. 



V. Of garden herbs and pot herbs. 



VI. Of umbelliferous plants. 



VII. Of plants with beautiful flowers. 



VIII. Of fragrant plants. 



IX. Of plants growing in marshes. 



X. Of plants growing in rough, rocky, sandy and 



sunny places. 

 XI. Of plants growing in shady, wet, marshy and 



fertile places. 



XII. Of plants growing by the sea, and in the sea 



itself 



XIII. Of climbing plants. 



XIV. Of thistles and all spiny and prickly plants. 



XV. Of plants with bulbs, and succulent and knotty 



roots. 



XVI. Of cathartic plants. 

 XVII. Of poisonous plants. 



XVIII. Of foreign plants. 



