Text-book of structural and physiological botany / by Otto W. Thomé and Alfred W. Bennett.

  • Thomé, Otto W. (Otto Wilhelm), 1840-1925.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Text-book of structural and physiological botany / by Otto W. Thomé and Alfred W. Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    great advance ; for none of them went beyond a more or less careful description of different plants. Csesalpinius {ob. 1603) was the first to devote himself to a systematic classification of plants. He derived his prin- ciples mainly from the characters of the fruit and from the position of the perianth in reference to the pistil; but his ])rimary division of the vegetable kingdom was into woody and herbaceous plants. His example was followed by others, and the science received an ever-increasing impetus, directed by such men as Tabernaemontanus {ob. 1590), Alpinus {ob. 1616), and Camerarius {ob. 1721), an impetus which was greatly assisted by the great store of botanical material de- rived from travels in the East and in America. But there were no means of comparing these fresh discoveries with one another, in consequence of a want of correspondence in the names given to the same plant by different investigators. The brothers John and Caspar Bauhin {ob. 1613 and 1624) were the first to endeavour to overcome this difficulty. From this time the number of botanists increased so greatly that we can mention only those who introduced new and in- fluential ideas. The originator of the Latin botanical nomenclature was Jung {ob. 1657), rector of the gymnasium at Hamburgh. Soon afterwards, in 1700, Tournefort {ob. 1708) propounded a new system, and was the first to classify plants into strictly defined genera. A year before his death, the great reformer of botany, the Swede Carl von Linne (Linn^us, ob. 1778), was born. It was he who first raised botany to the rank which it should have attained long before, of an edifice resting on a firm foundation ; for to him we owe the first system of nomenclature and description of a truly scientific character. But this was not all; for Linnreus propounded the celebrated system that bears his name, which has indeed since been replaced by others of a much more natural character, but which is unequalled in practical value if the purpose is simply to name any given plant, or to assign its