Like de l’Obel, Bauhin proceeds in his enumeration from the supposed
most imperfect to the more perfect forms, beginning with the Grasses
and the majority of Liliaceae and Zingiberaceae, passing on to
dicotyledonous herbs, and ending with shrubs and trees.
The Cryptogams that were known to him stand in the middle of the series
of dicotyledonous herbs, between the Papilionaceae and the Thistles,
the Equisetaceae being reckoned among the Grasses. On the great
distinction between Cryptogams and Phanerogams the views of Bauhin
were evidently less clear than those of many of his predecessors; but
it will not seem strange that he should place some Phanerogams, as
for instance the Duckweeds, among the Cryptogams and the Salviniaceae
among the Mosses, and unite the Corals, Alcionieae, and Sponges with
the Seaweeds, when we consider that it was not till the middle of the
18th century that more correct views arose in respect to these forms,
and that Linnaeus himself could not decide whether the Zoophytes
should be excluded from the vegetable kingdom and ranked with animals.
The knowledge of plants in the scientific sense of the word was till
the beginning of the 19th century limited to the Phanerogams; and
in speaking of principles and methods in descriptive botany before
that time we must think only of the Phanerogams, or at most of the
Phanerogams and the Ferns. The methodical examination of the Cryptogams
belongs to quite recent botanical research. The matter is here alluded
to only in connection with the fact, that it is from the works of
Kaspar Bauhin, a writer of ability, in whom the first period of
scientific botany culminates, that we most clearly see how great the
advance has been since his time.
CHAPTER II.
ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS AND TERMINOLOGY OF ORGANS FROM CESALPINO TO LINNAEUS.
1583-1760.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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