These points are abundantly sufficient to show that among the Peripatetics a considerable amount of tolerably exact knowledge of botany really existed, and that a solid foundation had been laid for their successors.
And in fact it appears that the impulse they gave to investigation did for some considerable time afterwards produce a perceptible effect ; for by the time of Pliny it is evident that a considerable addition had been made to the stock of botanical knowledge. It is true that it was much disfigured by the poets, who then as now appear to have had only a smattering of the science of their day ; but it is incredible that they should have been able to glean that smattering out of any other field than a very rich one. For example, the sexuality of plants, which Aristotle had denied, which Theoplirastua had adverted to, is spoken of iu positive terms; grafting, in more ways than ono, and even budding, are spoken of In language which is remarkably precise for the words of a -poet; and although to these operations were attributed powers which they did not possess, yet it is abundantly plain that the processes were thoroughly understood. The "Angurtas In tpro Fit node slags; hue aliens ex arbore gertnen lacludunt udoque docent inolescero libro," is as correct a description of the operation called budding a.s any modern could give in so many words ; and it is impossible that such an operation should ever have beeu devised without a much more large and accurate knowledge of vegetable physiology than it is generally believed that the ancients possessed.
From this time forward all inquiry into matters of science began to decline. Under the Inter Roman emperors science became gradually extinguished ; under the Byzantine princes it can scarcely be said to have been preserved; and the little attention it subsequently received from a few obscure writers rather hastened than arrested its downfall.
Upon the revival of science in Europe the writings of the classical and Arabian herbalists were taken as the text-books of the schools, but their errors were multiplied by false translations, their supersti tions were admitted without question ; and so little was added by the monkish authors, that between the time of Ebn Beithar, who flourished in the 13th century, and the year 1532, when the ' Herbarum Vivaa Eicones' of Otho 13runsfels, a Bernese physician, made theirappearance, scarcely a single addition had been made to the slender stock of knowledge of about 1400 species, which are computed by Sprengel to have formed the total amount discovered by all botanists, Greek, Roman, and Arabian, up to the death of Abdallatif of Baghdad. Brunsfela describes the state of botany as being in his day most deplorable, as being principally in the hands of the most ignorant persons, and as consisting of a farrago of long and idle commentaries, disfigured " by myriads of barbarous, obsolete, and ridiculous names." He deserves to be mentioned as the first reformer in this science, and as the earliest writer who earnestly endenvoured to purify the corrupted streams which had flowed through so many ages of barbarism from the ancient Greek and Roman fountains. His example was speedily followed by Tragus, Fuchsius, Matthiolus, and others. The knowledge of species rapidly augmented, partly by the examination of indigenous plants and partly by the remarks of the earlier travellers, who about the year 1460 began to turn their attention to the vegetable kingdom; till at last their abundance became so great as to call for the assistance of compilers capable of digesting what had already begun to be scattered through numberless works. The first undertaking of the kind was by Conrad Gesner, a native of Ztirich, who died in the year 1565. This excellent man spent tho latter part of his life in collecting materials for a general history of plants. He is stated to have caused above 1500 drawings to be prepared for the illustration of his undertaking, but unfortunately he died before his project was executed, and his materials were afterwards dispersed. He appears however to have brought about one most important change in science, by discovering that the distinctions and true nature of plants were to be sought in their organs of reproduction rather than in those of nutrition. This was assuredly the first step that had been taken forward in the science since the fall of the ltornam empire, and is abundant evidence of the great superiority of Cleaner over all those who had preceded him. From this time collections of
species were made by numerous writers; our countryman Turner, Dodoens, Lobel, Clusius Cresalpinus, and the Bauhins, were the most distinguished writers between the years 1550 and 1600 ; and among them the number of known species was so exceedingly increased, especially by the discoveries of Clusius, that it became impossible to reduce them into any order without the adoption of sonic principle of classification. Hence originated the first attempts at systematical arrangement with which commences The Second Era.—It is to Matthew Lobel, a Dutch physician residing in England in the time of Elizabeth, that the honour is to be ascribed of having been the first to strike out a method by which plants could be so arranged, that those which are most alike should be placed next to each other, or in other words, which should be an expression of their natural relations. As may be supposed this early attempt at the discovery of a natural system was exceedingly rude and imperfect; it in however remarkable for having comprehended several combinations which are recognised at the present day : Oscar bitaceer, Gramineq, Labiata., Iloroyinar, Leguminosw, Fillets, were all distinctly indicated ; and it nitv be added, that under the name of Asphodda he grouped the principal part of modern petaloid monocotyledons. The reasons however why such groups were con stituted were not then susceptible of definition; the true principles of classification had to be elicited by the long and patient study of succeeding ages. Among the foremost to take up this important subject was Cresalpinus, a Roman physician attached to the court of Pope Sixtus V. This naturalist possessed a degree of insight into the science far beyond that of his age, and is memorable for the justness with which ho appreciated many of the loss obvious cireuni deuces which his predecessors had overlooked. For example, lie was aware of the circulation of the sap : he believed that its ascent from the roots was caused by heat; he knew that leaves are cortical expan sions traversed by veins proceeding in part from the Tiber ; lie estimated the pith of plants at its true value, and seeds lie compared to eggs, in which there exists a vital principle without life ; but he denied the existence of sexes in the vegetable kingdom. Improving upon the views of Cleaner, he showed how great is the value of the fructification in systematic botany ; the flower he said was nothing but the wrapper of the fruit ; the essential part of the seed he considered to be what is called the corculum, that is, the double cone of phimule and radicle which connects the cotyledons. In general his views of vegetable physiology were much more just than those of his predecessors, and if he did not avoid the error of supposing certain plants to be mere abortions of more perfect species, as many grasses of corn, he amply redeemed hie fame by the correction of other mistakes. From differ ences in the fruit and the seed of plants he formed a system which, though purely artificial and never much employed, had the merit of calling attention strongly to the existence of a class of important characters which had previously been either overlooked or under valued. • But notwithstanding the attempts thus made by a few distinguished men to elevate the science to a higher station, and to reduce it to some general principles, it still continued to languish and to remain for the most part in the hands of the most ignorant pretenders, and in no country more so than in England. We find upon the authority of the celebrated Ray, that in this country in the middle of the 17th century it was in the most lamentable state. At that time the standard book of English botanists was a publication called Gerarde's 'Herbal,' which was, as Ray tells us, the production of a man almost entirely ignorant of the learned languages, in which nevertheless all books on science were nt that time written. The principal part of the work was pirated from the Peuiptrules' of Dodoens, turned into Euglish by one Priest, and in order to conceal the plunder the arrangement of Dodoens was exchanged for that of Lobel, while the whole was made up with the wood-blocks of Tabermemontanua's Krauterbuch,' often unskilfully transposed and confounded. At last a change as sudden as it was important was produced in the science by the application of the microscope to botanical purposes.