54 .HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



tanic garden was already very rich : the instruc- 

 tion was no longer limited to the demonstration 

 of medicinal plants, and the progress of the 

 science since Toumefort , by the labours of 

 Linnoeus, Adanson, and de Jussieu, authorised 

 and required a more philosophic plan. M. Des- 

 fontaines was the first to perceive the impor- 

 tance of a general knowledge of the nature of 

 vegetables, the functions peculiar to each or- 

 gan, and the phenomena of the different periods 

 of their developement, in order duly to unders- 

 tand their generic and specific characters : he 

 therefore divided his course into two parts; the 

 first devoted to the anatomy and physiology of 

 vegetables ; the second, to the classification and 

 description of the genera and species. From that 

 period botanical instruction was no longer con- 

 fined to the exterior forms of plants , but com- 

 prised their affinities, uses, and modifications. To 

 the method of teaching adopted in the King's 

 Garden since 1788, are to be ascribed those 

 works which have made of vegetable physiology 

 the basis of botany, and led to the applications 

 of this science in agriculture and the arts. 



M. Desfontaines delivered his lectures for some 

 years in the botanic garden , but as the number 

 of pupils increased, he assembled them in the am- 

 phitheatre, where the necessary specimens for 



