278 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



5. Fruits and seeds are described with great precision. In the 

 case of capsular fruits if the cells are several he tells the number of 

 them and notes the lines of dehiscence, often giving not only the 

 color and the form of the seeds, but the number of rows they form 

 within the capsule. 



6. The root is always the last part of the plant which Cordus 

 describes. This, as has been remarked in an earlier chapter, is 

 the inconspicuous or at least the hidden organ, the one that has ta 

 be unearthed often with difficulty; and if physiologically and 

 biologically speaking the root is the first of plant organs — and 

 Cordus must have known this, or at least might have learned it 

 from Theophrastus — phyto graphically it is perhaps well enough 

 regarded as the last ; for it is perfectly natural that a man in describ- 

 ing a plant should begin with those parts that are obviously before 

 his eyes, and then proceed in a search for those that are hidden away. 



7. In describing herbaceous plants Cordus never fails to state 

 the natural duration of the species if he knows it. Everything with 

 him is annual, or biennial, or perennial. He is far more careful 

 about this than most botanists of the present. 



8. To the morphology of things he adds faithful reports of the 

 odors and flavors, whether of foliage, flowers, or roots ; and he is so- 

 distinctively phytographic as to make the briefest possible mention 

 of medical qualities. This all the more clearly reveals in him a 

 purpose to separate between descriptive botany and economic 

 botany ; for as a young physician he was particularly distinguished 

 in pharmacy. 



The boldest innovation that was made by any botanist of the 

 whole sixteenth century, in whatever part of Europe, was that of 

 Valerius Cordus when he proceeded to describe anew, and according 

 to his own phytographic scheme, some of the best known and even 

 best described plants of Dioscorides. And yet the ultimate success 

 of the innovation might have been foreseen, doubtless was fore- 

 seen, by the young author. The reader must here be given one 

 example of Cordus' new description of a very old medicinal plant -^ 

 contrasting his with that of Dioscorides. 



Dioscorides, Book II., Ch. 162. "Arum, called Lupha by the 

 Syrians, sends up leaves like those of Dracunculus, but larger and 

 less spotted; stem purplish, nine inches high, bearing something like 

 a pestle, upon which the red seeds grow ; root like that of Dracunculus- 

 white." 



Valerius Cordus, Hist. Book I., Ch. 50. " Arum in early spring 

 sends up its leaves each rolled together like a cloak and the roll 



