FIRST PERIOD. 17 



publication of his Elements of Botany. This work, 

 by presenting a new method for the classifica- 

 tion of plants , gave a solid basis to the science , 

 and rendered the study of it equally easy and 

 agreeable. 



Tournefort made several journeys to procure 

 plants, and in 1700, went to the Levant, accom- 

 panied by the painter Aubriet. During his absence 

 his chair, was fdled by his colleague Morin, and 

 at his return in 1702, he introduced into the gar- 

 den the plants of which he had collected the seeds 

 in his travels : several of them, before unknown, 

 have since been propagated. He died in 1708, 

 and left his collection of natural history and 

 herbarium , to the garden. This herbarium is not 

 extensive , but it is rendered valuable by the 

 plants gathered in the Levant , and indicated in 

 the corollarium of the Institutiones Rei Herba- 

 ria (1). Tournefort's chair was given to Danty 

 dTsnard , who had been named to the botanical 

 section of the academy of sciences , in 1 7 1 6. 



Fagon , who like his predecessors might have 

 vested his authority in an intendant, judged it 

 better simply to confide the oversight of the cul- 



(1) The Institutiones Rei Herbarice, which is a translation with ad- 

 ditions of the elements of Botany, was published by Tournefort in 1700, 

 The name of each plant is accompanied by a descriptive phrase. The 

 corollarium was added after his return from the Levant. 



1 



