Old Sutural History Books, 
catalogue of Jamaica Plants, issued in 1696, and of A Voyage 
to . Madera^ Barbadoes . . . and Jamaica^ with the natural jq-Q, 
history of the last^ 1707? 25. 
The acquisition of his collections by the nation in 1753? 
and the founding, with them as a basis, of the British Museum, 
were events that, after a time, exercised no small influence on 
the development of Natural Science. 
G eology did not make any considerable progress at this 
time, but John Woodward [1665-1728], the geologist 
and founder of the Museum at Cambridge bearing his name, 
published in 1695 An Essay toward a Natural History of the No. 59. 
Earthy from which it is apparent that he recognized the exist¬ 
ence of various strata of the Earth’s crust, but failed to under¬ 
stand the true disposition of the fossils in them, considering that 
the whole world had been dissolved at the flood, and that the 
fossils subsequently settled down in the order of their gravity, 
the heaviest sinking first. Woodward’s Thoughts and Experi¬ 
ments concerning Vegetation^ read before the Royal Society in 
1699 [Phil. Trans, vol. xxi.) embody some of the earliest 
evidences produced of Transpiration in Plants. 
Antonio Vallisneri [1661-1730], an Italian naturalist, 
whose works were rich in original observations, ridiculed the 
theories of Woodward and others in his Dei Corpi Marini 
(Venice, 1721), described the fossils of Monte Bolca, and 
attempted the first general sketch of the marine deposits of 
Italy. 
T he placing of Cryptogamic Botany on a proper footing 
at this date was mainly the work of Johann Jacob 
Dillenius [1687-1747], the first Professor of Botany at the 
University of Oxford, and of his contemporary and rival, the 
Italian botanist, Pietro Antonio Michieli (or Micheli) 
[1679-1737]. Both these naturalists, however, erred in their 
interpretation of the parts of fructification, and the true 
explanation of these organs was only arrived at many years 
later by Johann Hedwig [1730-1799]. 
Dillenius’ chief work, the Historia Muscorum^ appeared at 
Oxford in 1741, and his original drawings for some of the 
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