Old d^tural History Books. 
WITH the exception of the two last-named writers, the 
botanists continued the leaders of natural history study until 
far into the middle of the seventeenth century, the principal 
workers of note being :— 
Jean Bauhin [1541-1613], a French physician and 
botanist, who wrote an Historia Plantarum universalis^ which 
was issued after his death, under the care of Cherler and 
Chabraeus, in 1650-1651. Though the classification was 
antiquated, the accuracy and clearness of the text caused Ray 
and others to attach great importance to this work. 
Caspar Bauhin [1560-1624], brother to Jean, besides 
editing the works of Mattioli and Theodorus Tabernae- 
montanus, contemplated an exhaustive treatise on all known 
Plants. 
The first and only published part of Vol. i. of his Pheatrum 
Botanicum appeared posthumously in 1658 ; but his preliminary 
work, the Pinax Theatri Botanici^ issued in 1623, that enume¬ 
rated about 6,000 plants, became the universal text-book on 
Botany for nearly a century : it is quoted by Linnaeus in 
the latter’s Species Plantarum. The distinction between genus 
and species is fully carried out in this work, and the nomen¬ 
clature is very largely binomial. 
Thomas Johnson [ -1644], an English botanist and 
physician, and afterwards colonel in the Royalist Army, was 
the author of the first local catalogues of Plants published in 
England. One of these referred to a part of Kent, and another 
to Hampstead Heath : they were issued in 1629 and 1632 
respectively. He likewise brought out an improved edition of 
Gerard’s “ Herbal.” 
John Parkinson [1567-1650], Apothecary to James I. and 
Botanist to Charles I., is renowned for his book with the 
punning title Paradisi in Sole Paradisus terrestris^ published in 
1629 quite lately reprinted. It is valuable as affording an 
exact view of the extent of floriculture at that period. His 
principal work, the Theatrum Botanicum^ appeared in 1640, and 
contained descriptions of some 3,800 plants. 
William How [1620-1656] wrote the first British Flora. 
It appeared anonymously in 1650, under the title of Phytologia No. 35. 
Britannicay and contains the names of i,220 plants. 
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