67 
HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
Thus different struftures were raised to reduce into order the Itores 
of natural productions, and to facilitate a comprehensive view of them ; 
but, as in all former fabrics, there was no formal and regular perfeBion 
in them. The chambers were not sufficiently commodious for common 
use, and the division of the whole was destitute of solidity and preci- 
sion. 
A greater architeB arose, who excelled all his predecessors. This 
was Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a Frenchman, born at Aix 
in Provence in 1656, whose genius was wholly created for botany. 
His parents had destined him for the church, but Tournefort, like 
our Li n n * u s, ranged through the fields and colleBed plants instead of 
going to school. He was left fatherless at the age of 21. He now de- 
voted himself entirely to his inclination, studied at Montpellier, where 
the botanical garden was of great service to him; made a tour through 
Languedoc, Dauphiny and the Pyrenees-, was appointed professor of the 
royal botanical garden at Pans in 1683 ; visited Spain , , Portugal, Eng- 
land and Holland j undertook to travel from 1700 to 1702 at the ex- 
pence of Louis XV. into Greece and Asia, whither he was accompa- 
nied by A. Gundelsheimer, a native of Anspach, and physician to 
the King of Prussia, and died at last in a state of celibacy in the year 
i'-o8. His death was occasioned by a catastrophe similar to that -which 
befel Morism, his chest being crashed by a carriage which suddenly 
passed by him. . 
Before he set out on Ms travels he published a new botanical sys- 
tem which soon attracted universal attention. He divided the plants 
iZ twenty-two classes, which he determined by the different forma- 
tion 
K 2 
