E44 PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY, ETC, 
SySs. 4), 
SIXTH EPOCH. 
From VALuant till LINNE. 
Or from 1717 to 1735. 
Vaullant’s perspicacity discovers the faults in Tour- 
nefort’s system, and in his genera. He fixes new 
genera, endeavours to bring the smallest plants, as 
mosses and fungi, under a csrtain classification, and 
first clearly points out the sexes of plants. What 
Vaillant was unable to do, to arrange the mosses 
accurately and justly, has been ably executed by 
Dillenius and Micheli. Linné’s great genius gives 
the whole science a more favourable appearance, 
and botany now becomes, what it should have been 
long before, a structure resting upon a firm foun- 
dation. © | : 
Sebastian Vaillant was born 26th May, 1669, at 
Vigny in France. He studied surgery, but his great 
love for botany induced him to study this science 
exclusively. ‘lournefort, whose pupil he was, did 
every thing in his power to complete the education 
of his very promising pupil. He became demon- 
strator of botany at Paris. From too great a zeal 
for botanical knowledge, he travelled on foot through 
all the neighbourhood of Paris, and thus became 
consumptive, which put (May 21, 1722), an end to 
his active life. | 
The smaller plants became the chief object of his 
attention. He recognised in the pollen of the Pa- 
rietarja the semen masculinum, and did not, with 
Tournefort, 
