CUVIER AND A. D. THOUARS. 



103 



logues of plants of the Levant. But his principal work 

 on the vegetable kingdom is the ' Historia Generahs 

 Plantarum/ in three vols, foho ; the first of which ap- 

 peared in 1686; the second in 1688; and the third, 

 which is a supplement, not till 1704. In this work 

 he has collected in order, and described methodically 

 and clearly, all the plants made known by his pre- 

 decessors, and added those which had been discovered 

 in his own time.* HaUer, Sprengel, and others, who 

 have spoken of this work, agree in looking upon it as the 

 fruit of immense labour, and as displaying great learning, 

 combined with critical acumen and sagacity ; although, 

 having been composed for the greater part from facts 

 taken from other writers, it cannot be considered as an 

 original source in the science Ray also paid consider- 

 able attention to vegetable physiology, and in the 68th 

 volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions' is an interesting 

 memoir from his pen, on the ascent of the sap in trees ; 

 and he has related, in various parts of his writings, many 

 instructive observations in this department of physical 

 science. In the first book of his ' Historia Plantarum,' 

 under the simple title of " De plantis in genere," he has 

 displayed the rare talent requisite to bring these scattered 

 observations into one point of view, and here may be 

 found the principal discoveries on the nature of plants, 

 made by Csesalpinus, Columna, Grew, Malpighi, and 

 Jungius, in addition to those made by Ray himself ; and 

 in this way resulted the most complete treatise which had 

 as yet appeared on vegetation in general ; and it must be 

 remarked that, although this work may not have been 

 very frequently quoted, yet it is through it that the doc- 

 trines of these authors were made common, and became, 



* According to Adanson, there are mentioned in this immense work, 

 18,625 plants, arranged in thirty-three classes, of which six, or nearly one- 

 fifth, are natural ones ; and 125 sections, of which forty -three, or one-third, 

 are also natural. The idea of the work is very good, and it would have been 

 more successful, had the author been as great a botanist as he was a learned 

 writer and judicious compiler. [The previous remarks of the authors are 

 sufficient proof of the greatness of Ray as a botanist.] 



