28G 
JII STORY OF BOTANY. 
We are at this time presented with the names of many who 
were engaged in examining and describing plants ; among them 
we find little to distinguish one above the otheis. Some are 
commemorated by thp names of plants ; Leonard Fusch of Ger- 
many, by the plant Fuschsia ; Lobel, physician to James I. by 
the Lobelia ; and Lonicer by the Lonicera. 
But, notwithstanding the labours of many learned men, little 
real improvement would have been made in the science of bota- 
ny, had there not, at that time, existed some minds of superior 
genius, who turned their attention to tracing some proper meth- 
od of classification. The names most illustrious in the annals 
of botanical science which here present themselves, are Gesner, 
Clusius, Cmsalpinus, and Bauhin ; of the latter name were two 
brothers, both of whom are deservedly celebrated. 
Gesner, a native of Switzerland, born in 151(5, was of ob- 
scure and humble origin, but possessed of a powerful and pene- 
trating mind. 
He attempted to make a general collection of the objects of 
Natural History; he explored the Alps, and discovered many 
plants until then unknown. He is distinguished from those who 
had gone before him, in his suggestions that there existed in the 
vegetable kingdom groups or genera, each one composed of 
many species, united by similar characters of the flower and 
fruit. Soon after the publication of this opinion, botanists be- 
gan to understand that the different families of plants have 
among themselves natural relations, founded upon resemblances 
and affinities, and that the most obvious are not always the most 
important. These are fundamental truths ; and the distinction 
of species, the establishment of genera, and of natural families, 
seemed to follow of course after these principles were once es- 
tablished. 
Clusius was born a few years later than Gesner ; his parents 
had destined him for the profession of the law, but his decided 
taste for botany induced him to abandon this profession. He 
was learned in the ancient and modern languages, but his enthu- 
siasm for natural history induced him to lay aside every other 
pursuit. He travelled over almost all the west of Europe, in 
order to make discoveries in the vegetable kingdom ; he soon 
excelled all the botanists of the age in the knowledge both of 
native plants and exotics. He had the direction of the imperial 
garden at Vienna, and afterwards was a public professor of bot- 
any at Leyden. His passion for the study of plants was not 
enfeebled by age or infirmities ; his enthusiasm in this science 
German and other botanists — most celebrated — Gesner, — How distin- 
guished from his predecessors — Clusius — the first who proposed to divide 
plants into classes. 
