HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



309 



As, about the end of the century, an almost infinite mul- 

 titude of plants was discovered, and different names were 

 given to these by each writer, it became a matter of urgent 

 necessity, to review the synonymes, in order to give some 

 certainty to the knowledge of plants. This difficult labour 

 was undertaken by Caspar Bauhin, professor at Basil, who 

 died in 1624. His Pinax Theatri Botanici, printed at Basil, 

 1623, in quarto, is still a necessary aid in the complete study 

 of the science. The Theatrum Botanicum, which was in- 

 tended to contain the natural families of plants, has not been 

 fully published, but we possess only the Prodromus, publish- 

 ed at Frankfort, 1620, in quarto, with excellent plates, and 

 the first part of the larger work, which was published at Ba- 

 sil, 1658, in folio. Caspar''s brother, John Bauhin, physician 

 to the chief of Mumpelgard, who died 1613, collected a 

 great many plants, and arranged them according to a plan si- 

 milar to that of his brother. But his Historia Plantarum 

 Universalis, which was published in three volumes, at lifer- 

 ten, 1651 and 1653, disappointed expectation, both in regard 

 to the arrangement, and to the plates. 



III. First Establishment of the Doctrine respecting the Struc- 

 ture and Systematical Arrangemeiit of Plants. 



444. 



We are principally indebted to the establishment of learn- 

 ed societies in the seventeenth century, and to the invention 

 of the microscope, for the first attempts at a more minute 

 examination of the structure of plants. In the Society of 

 London for the Promotion of Science, which was liberally 

 supported by Charles the Second, several men were found, 

 under the management of the King himself, who occupied 

 themselves exclusively with the dissection and microscopical 

 examination of plants. Of these, the most distinguished was 

 Nehemiah Grew, secretary to the society, who died in 1711. 

 His discoveries are recorded in the immortal work, the Ana-^ 

 tomy of Plants, London, 1682, in folio. In this work we 



