HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
6a 
its knowledge. Bauhin was not the creator of a system, but he re- 
formed many abuses and defe&s, especially the confusion of names. 
He colle£lcd the synonymous terms of 6000 plants, which various 
authors had assigned to them of their own accord. This prevented 
the manifold mistakes which had till then been made by botanists, who 
took several descript plants for non-descripts, and gave them new 
names, only because they had been described too much and too va- 
riously. Bauhin himself made several mistakes in this new method, 
which are however, considering the whole extent of his merits, worthy 
of being overlooked. 
Linnaeus himself represents the fate of botany under an ingenious 
simile : « Botany,” says he*, « is a plant of the genus of the palms, 
« which sometimes do not bloom for a whole century, and bear fruit 
« at a late period. Botany first put forth some shoots in the reign of 
“ Alexander, was afterwards transplanted to Rome, continued to 
,£ prosper, but grew no farther, and began to fade, when they ceased 
« to foster it. It was then transported into Arabia, and yielded, for 
« the first time, in the sixteenth century, a slight frail blossom in 
« Italy — (Caesalpinus) — a blossom which could be blasted on its 
« short and thin stalks by the least gust of wind, and bore no kind of 
« fruit. In the seventeenth century it began to germinate, pro- 
« duced only a few leaves and no mark of bloom; but in the 
« spring of this golden age, when the snow had scarcely been melted 
“ the trunk put forth blossom, and the latter a fruit — (Caspar Bau- 
‘ e hin) which almost came to maturity.” 
* In the preface of his Bibliotheca Botanica, Amstcrd. 1738. 
This 
