57 
HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
public establishment of this kind, was made at the university oi Pad , 
in 1540. This public example set in Italy— an example so evidently use- 
ful to physicians and natural philosophers, was imitated before the clos^ 
of the sixteenth century by medical gardens at Zurich , Turin , and 
Montpellier. In this manner the science of botany now became a re- 
gular academical study. 
During the latter half of the sixteenth century, its novelty and 
pleasantness gained it several lovers in most of the Southern countries 
of Europe. Collections were made, plants described, voyages of natural 
discoveries in other parts of the world undertaken, and the charms of 
Flora created an enthusiasm, which bade defiance to all dangers and dif- 
ficulties. Mr. Wieland, born at Koenigsberg , in Prussia , who after- 
wards assumed the name of Guilandinus in Italy, made a voyage 
into Asia and Africa, under the prote&ion of a rich patrician at Venice ; 
but on his succeeding voyage to America he was captured by a Bar- 
barian pirate, and carded a slave to Algiers. A lover and professor 
of a science to which he afterwards fell a martyr, Fallopio, pro- 
fessor of Botany at Padua, generously paid his ransom. Guilandi- 
nus became the successor of his deliverer in his professorship, and 
died at Padua in 1589. 
Prosper Alpinus, a Venetian, who a few years after succeeded 
Guilandinus as professor, became equally eminent for his zeal in 
botany and natural history. He made a voyage to Egypt , as physician 
to the Consul of the Republic, and brought back with him several 
learned produaions*; he died in the year 1617. One of the first and 
* Dc Plantis /Egypt', Venet. 1592, quarto.— De plantis Exoticis, Libr. II. Venet 1627, 
quarto.— Historlal Natural!® aEgyptiomm Lib. IV. Leyden, i 735> quarto. 
most 
1 
