VI 
PREFACE. 
wi iters on botany. The Pimx of Bauhine, In which 
tiie names ot plants given by preceding writers, are 
collected and reduced to fix thoufand fpecies, was 
awoik of forty )ears, and was publilhed in 1623. 
In 1613, Befler publilhed his Hortus Eyflettenfis^ 
with copper-plates, at Nurenburg. After this arofe 
Aldinus at Rome, Broflbeus at Paris, Parkinfon at 
London, and Johnfbn, the learned editor of Gerard’$ 
hei bal ; Donatus, author of a treatife on marine 
plants, piinted at Venice in 1631; and Cornutus, 
auth(iir of the hiilory ot the plants of Canada, print- 
ed at Paris in 1635. J()hn Bauhine, brother to 
Cafpar, began an univertal hiilory of plants, which 
was continued by Cherler of Bafil, and finifhed by 
Chabreeu^ of Geneva ; it W’as publilhed in three vo* 
iumes in folio, in 1650. 
In 1648, the. natural hiilory of Brafil by Marc- 
grave was publilhed at Amllerdam: in 1651, the 
natural hiilory of Mexico by Hernandez was pub* 
lilhcd at Rome; and in 1658, the natural hiltory 
of the Eall-Indies by Bontius, with that of the 
WeR- Indies by Pifo, was piinted at Amllerdam, 
In this age lived Anibrolini and Zanoni in Italy; 
Rudbeck in Sweden; Grifley in Portugal; Ellholtz 
and Mentzelius in Germany; Merret in England; 
Munting in Holland; Dodart in France; Breynius 
in Poland, and many other botanills. I'he Heer 
van Rheede, a Dutch governor in the Eall-Indies, 
wdth the help of lome brachmans and other natives, 
coilecled materials for the Hortus Malabaricus^ a work 
eon lilting of twelve volumes in folio, the lirft of 
which was publiflied in 1678* 
The writers of this and the preceding century 
had difeovered and deferibed a great number of 
plants, but for want of a regular arrangement, bo- 
tany was yet, in general, a chaos. Some authors 
difpofed plants in alphabetic order ; fome according 
to- tiieir time of flowering; fome by their places of 
growth ; 
