6 The American Naturalist. [January, 
to present the subject in a reasonably complete and well bal- 
anced manner, it will be more satisfactory to drop the chrono- 
logical method of treatment, and to outline the salient features 
of the subject as they are understood at the present time. 
Before doing so, however, it will not be unprofitable to glance 
for a few moments at the parts which the several nations have 
played in this growth of knowledge, and at the reciprocal 
influence which has been exerted upon the teachers of those 
countries. 
Science in its highest aspects has always been, as at the 
present time, the property of the whole world, knowing no 
political restraint or nationality. The barrier of language, 
however, has had much to do with retarding the diffusion of 
knowledge from the original sources of discovery into the text 
books, which serve as the means of enlightenment for the 
mass of learners. 
The great discoverers and thinkers in our present subject, 
since the days of Malpighi, an Italian, have been either 
French, German or English. The Germans, before 1865, 
made no discoveries of commanding importance, and even 
their text books barely gave a true account of the subject as 
known at the time. Link, in 1807, ignored the all-important 
discoveries of Senebier and De Saussure, the more readily, 
doubtless, because they were Frenchmen. ‘Twenty-five years 
afterward De Candolle’s general treatise was translated from 
` the French and became one of the most influential text books 
in Germany. $ 
The chief activity among Englishmen occurred before 1800, 
and brought forward the names of Hales, Priestley and Ingen- 
housz. The advanced work was taken up by Frenchmen after 
1800, among whom Senebier, De Saussure, Dutrochet and 
Boussingault are the most conspicuous investi gators. 
It is chiefly the French botanists, particularly De Candolle ` : 
and Dutrochet, who have had the most potent and lasting 
influence upon the popular conceptions of the English regard- 
ing vegetable physiology. To them we can also trace a num- : 
ber of errors and omissions which figure in our school text 
books at the present time. De Candolle was the author of the 
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