l66 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



Sprengel, 1 Ernst Meyer, ^ Emil Winckler,^ Julius von Sachs.* All 

 of them name Brunfels, Fuchs, and Tragus (Bock) as the fathers, of 

 the new botany of modern times. 



It has been indicated in a preceding chapter of these Landmarks 

 that the real father of botany as a science was Theophrastus of Ere- 

 sus. If he is the father of the science he is the father of even 

 modern botany, though not of those developments of it that have 

 been the peculiar achievement of modern botanists. Science is 

 truth. The foundations of a science are its fundamental truths, and 

 so the foundations of a science once laid are laid forever. These 

 things are self evident. 



We shall not be able to realize in how far the " German Fathers" 

 contributed to the superstructure of modern botany until we have 

 examined with great care and diligence their best works ; and this 

 is something which, I shall make bold to say, not even the German 

 historians have been at the pains of doing; though Sprengel, first 

 of their lineage, did much and well in this direction, while also 

 leaving very much for others to accomplish. Julius von Sachs, the 

 latest in the line, copied Sprengel's caption "The German Fathers," 

 etc., but knew next to nothing of their works, even rating as 

 unimportant Valerius Cordus,' who was immeasurably the greatest 

 of them all. 



The four now named represent two rather distinct kinds or 

 grades of botanical work. Brunfels and Fuchs busied themselves 

 almost wholly with medical botany. It is a rare thing with 

 either of them to mention a plant of unknown or even uncertain 

 medicinal or alimentary qualities; and their plant descriptions are 

 almost as uniformly either compiled or literally copied from authors 

 of centuries and even almost thousands of years before them. The 

 books of Tragus and of Cordus abound in new and original descrip- 

 tions. These demonstrate that these two men examined plants 

 with their own eyes, and for the love of them as plants, and that 

 they saw many things about the structure and the behavior of them 

 to which the other two men, and even all botanists before them, 

 had been blind. 



There is another contrast. Brunfels and Fuchs, realizing the 

 defects of many of the ancient descriptions, sought to render the 



' Historia Ret Herbaria, 2 vols., 8vo, 1807-1808. 



'' Geschichte der Botanik, 4 vols., 8vo, 1854— 1857. 



3 Geschichte der Botanik, i vol., 8vo, 1854. 



* Geschichte der Botanik vOm 16 Jahrhundert bis i860, i vol., 8vo, 1875. 



» Geschichte der Botanik, p. 31. 



