54 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



v-as the least of all concerns. The Mahometans and Arah were ihe 

 only nations who would give them a partial reception. But they were 

 fonder of practical physic than botany, which was almost totally forlorn, 

 and abandoned of course. 



After a lapse of near fifteen ages, botany was rescued with other 

 sciences in the middle of the fifteenth century from her widowed state. 

 The printing and engraving on wood, and the discovery of America, came 

 to her assistance. The Germans were the foremost to draw her from 

 oblivion. The first representation of plants in wood-cuts made its ap- 

 pearance at Mentz towards the latter end of the fifteenth century, and 

 an Italian Flora in 1485 was printed at Padua*. 



In botany the ancients could less be the guides and patterns of the 

 moderns than in the other sciences. The latter were too little ac- 

 quainted with the discoveries of the former ; their descriptions were 

 unintelligible, and mostly related to unknown southern plants. They 

 had no classification, no system ; it was not known where they classed 

 this or that plant, which of either they meant in their description, and 

 of course their discoveries remained unprofited by and lost. Hence it 

 became necessary to regenerate, as it v/ere, the whole science of bo- 

 tany, and to colleft and describe fresh materials for that purpose. 



In this point the Germans likewise were the first in setting an ex- 

 ample to other nations. A native of Mentz, of the name of Otho 

 Brunf ELS, professor at Strasbourg, and afterwards first physician in 

 the city of Bern, who died in the year 15345 became the first modern 



* Hortus Sanitatis sen de Herbis ac Plantis, in quarto, printed at Mentz, by P. Shoefter. 

 Heibarius Patavise impre$sus, anno Domini 1485, also with wood-cuts. 



restorer 



