Letters on the elements of botany. Addressed to a lady / by J. J. Rousseau ; Translated into English, with notes, and twenty-four additional letters, fully explaining the system of Linnaeus. By Thomas Martyn.

  • Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.
Date:
1807
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters on the elements of botany. Addressed to a lady / by J. J. Rousseau ; Translated into English, with notes, and twenty-four additional letters, fully explaining the system of Linnaeus. By Thomas Martyn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Gefner>; good and inftru@tive books on this fubjeat began to be publithed, in which already appeared fome traces of method‘. And it has certainly been a lofs that thefe pieces have become ufelefs and unintelli- gible by the mere difcordance of names.‘ But thefe authors, beginning to unite fpe- cies and feparate genera, according to their own manner of “oblerving the habit and apparent ftrudcture, occafioned new incon- veniencies, and a frefh obfcurity ; becaufe each author, regulating his .nomenclature nara own method, created new genera, B if we follow the order of birth, the arrangement fhould have been Cordus 1515, Gefner 1516, Cefal- pinus 1519, Clufius 1526: if we range them from the dates of their publications, they fhould ftand thus —Cordus 1535, Gefner 1°40, Clufius 1557, Cefal- pinus.1583. ¢ Indeéd !|—Some traces only of method in the cele- brated work of Cafalpinus'! He who firft invented a complete arrangement of plants, and ftands unrivalled as the father of method! He to whom every fucceed- | ing fyftem-monger owes fo many pecissael | Though among them all Ray alone confefles it. What Rouf- feau affirms is true only of the excellent, the illuftrious Gefner ; the other two thought nothing of arrange- ment : No, nor the nents nor any other, «till Mo- rifon and Ray. 4 If Roufleau means to fpeak here concerning the works of the forementioned authors, this is not true. The treatifes of Gefner and Clufius are every where referred to, even by Linnzus, and confequently their nomenclature is well known, The principal work of Valerius Cordus is Gefner’s Hiftory of Plants, which he publithed in 1561. Czefalpinus’s book is now be- come rather a matter of refpectable curiofity than ufe. ° dy. Maw or