544 
rHYTOGIlAPHY. 
BOOK IV. 
CHAPTER VII. 
OF BOTANICAL DRAWINGS. 
Another important method of indicating and preserving the 
characters of plants is by means of botanical drawings ; which, 
if carefully executed, and accompanied by magnified analyses 
of the parts that are not visible upon external inspection, are 
the very best means of expressing the peculiarities of a spe- 
cies. But, to render drawings really useful, there are many 
circumstances to be attended to. 
In the first botanical works that were illustrated by figures, 
the drawings were rude, and ill calculated to convey any clear 
idea of the object they were intended to represent: but, as a 
knowledge of the science advanced, great improvement took 
place in their execution ; minute accuracy was introduced into 
the outline of the leaves ; the form and position of the flowers 
w’ere carefully expressed ; and, if the parts of fructification 
were neglected, it was because their importance was not un- 
derstood. By degrees, the analysis of those parts began to be 
attended to; attempts were made, with various success, to 
represent the minute points in the organs of fructification. 
At last, the subject of carpology was taken up by the cele- 
brated Gaertner, who published two quarto volumes, in which 
numerous plates represented, often in a magnified state, the 
internal structure of fruits, and especially of their seeds. From 
the appearance of this work, I think, it is, that decided im- 
provements in the drawings of the analysis of flowers may be 
dated. Since that period botanical drawings have been gra- 
dually improving, till, at last, many have been executed which 
seem to leave nothing to be desired. 
A botanical drawing should represent a branch of the plant 
in flower, and also in fruit, of the natural size, in which all the 
characters of the leaves and ramifications, the direction and 
relative position of parts, the mode of expansion, the arrange- 
