22 INTRODUCTION 



the graves of the men they were intended to 

 commemorate forever. 



Thus, in letters of Conrad Gesner,' the Swiss 

 naturalist, it is shown that, had he lived to finish 

 his Histoire des Plantes, he would have perpetu- 

 ated the names of many friends, as he asked them 

 — Bauhin among the number — to choose among 

 his newly found plants for a namesake or to allow 

 him the pleasure of choosing for them. 



Clusius,' himself known as Clusia (Plumier), 

 " called the Contrayerva of the shops ° Drakena 

 in honor of his great friend Sir Francis Drake," 

 and for a long time mutual compliments of this 

 kind followed, Tournefort," Plumier,' and Peti- 

 ver," being specially given to the practice. In 

 Vlnrmerh N ova Plantarum Genera, 1703, giving 

 a description of 106 new genera he names some 

 50 after well-known botanists, seven of them Eng- 

 lish: Gerardia, Morisonia, Parkinsonia, Peti- 

 veria, Plukenetia, Sloanea, Turnera. 



John Lindley, writing in his Vegetable King- 

 dom (1846), remarks that: " Since the days of 



'Conrad Gesner (1516-1565). Opera Botanica, 1753-1759. 



* Charles de I'Ecluse, 1526-1609, celebrated doctor and botanist. 



" Dorstenia Contrayerva. (Used to be mixed with crab's eyes, as a 

 remedy.) 



"Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, 1656-1708, royal botanist, 1683. 



'Charles Plumier, 1 646-1704, scientist and botanist. Description 

 des Plantes de L'Amirique, 1695. 



'James Petiver, M. D., 1660-1718, doctor and botanist. Pterigraphia 

 Americana . . . . , 1712. 



