BOTANY AS A SCIENCE. 
83 
gradually declined, and became all but extinct during the dark ages, that commenced 
with the decline of the Eoman empire. How long this miserable blank continued, 
may be gathered from the fact, that about the middle of the fifteenth century, the 
names of Brunsfels, Fuchsius, and Matthiolus stand recorded, as being among the 
earliest reformers of Botany, 
To such a degree did the discovery of species subsequently extend, that some 
mode of arrangement was sought for, and the first attempt to effect it is ascribed to 
Conrad Gesner, who died in the year 1665. “ He appears to have brought about 
one most important change in science, by discovering that the distinctions and true 
nature of plants were to be sought in their organs of reproduction, rather than in 
those of nutrition.” After Gesner, we find the names of Turner, Lobel, Clusius, 
Caesalpinus, and the two Bauhins, all immortalised by plants, which are still in high 
estimation : they flourished between the years 1560, and 1600. At this period or 
second era, a systematical arrangement was attempted ; and to Lobel, a Hutch 
physician residing in England, “ the honour is to be ascribed of having been the first to 
strike out a method by which i^lants coidd he so arranged, that those ivhich are most 
alike should hejdaced next to each other, or ivhich should express their natural relation.''’ 
The third era saw the introduction of the microscope, an instrument to which we 
are mainly indebted for the examination of the internal tissues of plants, and in 
1661, the spiral vessels were discovered. Henshaw, Hook, and the celebrated 
Grew and Malpighi flourished at this period. The names and honours of the two 
last stand recorded in the genera Greivia and Malptighia, the last being the type of 
the order Malpighiacece. 
The fourth is that of Ray, the author of “Historia Plantarum,” in 1686. 
In this period we meet with the names of Magnol, (whence Magnolia), Tournefort, 
and Linnseus. The mention of the last great name, brings us to the — 
Fifth, which may very properly be styled the Linn^an Eea. A few lines 
from the article on Botany, will tend to do justice to his fame. “ Linnseus, educated 
in the severe school of adversity, accustomed from his earliest youth to estimate 
higher than all things verbal accuracy and a logical precision ; endowed by nature 
with a most brilliant understanding, and capable, from constitutional strength, of 
any fatigue either of mind or body, this extraordinary man was destined to produce 
a revolution in Botany. No naturalist has ever been his superior, and he richly 
merited that high station in science, which he held for so many years. His verbal 
accuracy, together with the remarkable terseness of his technical language, reduced 
the crude matter that was stored up in the folios of his predecessors, into a form 
that was accessible to all men.” 
The history of this extraordinary man ought to be familiarly known to every lover 
of phytological science ; therefore we earnestly recommend the perusal of a work 
called “ Lachesis Lapponica ; or A Tour to Lapland, from the original Manuscript 
Journal of the celebrated Linnaeus, by the late Dr. James Edward Smith.” It 
describes the early labours and observations of a very young philosopher, in 
