THE ZALLINGEEIAN PERIOD 25 



era is characterized : (1) by the revival of general in- 

 terest in plant diseases as is seen from the numerous 

 records in the agricultural hterature of the 17th century; 

 (2) by the evidence that this interest was especially pro- 

 nounced among the educated agriculturists and garden- 

 ers; (3) by the fact that with respect to the cause of these 

 diseases opinion was largely dominated by the philoso- 

 phies of the ancients and by superstition; (4) by the 

 attempts to develop practical methods of controlUng 

 diseases in plants, and (5) by the enactment of the first 

 law directed toward plant disease control. 



THE ZALLINGERUN PERIOD 

 The Zallingerian or taxonomic period covers the 

 18th century. It is characterized by attempts to name 

 and classify the diseases of plants much after the fashion 

 of naming and classifying plants themselves. The names 

 of the various plant diseases are copied from or fashioned 

 after those employed in human medicine for supposedly 

 similar diseases, and the classifications employed are 

 largely adaptations from those used in classifying 

 the diseases of man and animals. The period was 

 ushered in during the time of the revival of interest 

 in systematic botany, which culminated in the publica- 

 tion of Linnaeus' system of nomenclature (in Species 

 Plantarum) in 1753. Naming and classifying was the 

 order of the day and this early period of modern plant 

 pathology was largely dominated by the taxonomic mode 

 of thinking which prevailed among the scientific men of 

 that time. 



Phytopathologic thought and writings during the early 

 part of this period were, however, to be influenced not 



