Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

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was to aim at a passion for the search for all kinds of
plants. The results are preserved in a number of bulky
herbals, dating for the most part from the first half
of the sixteenth century. "Plants native to the soil, herbs
which flowered in gardens, had been raised from seed
purchased from itinerant vendors of anthodes, or plants
whose fruits were brought to Europe as curiosities from
the New World recently discovered — all these were jumbled
together in a confused medley." As researchers were then
limited to the native land of the students, they had
scarcely any idea how the floras of different countries
diffused. They assumed that the plants described by
Theophrastus, Dioscorides, or Pliny could be identified
in the more northerly countries. The German "Father of
Botany" (Brunfels 1495-1534, Bock 1498-1554, Fuchs
1501-1566) applied the Greek-Latin names without
scruple to the species growing in their own locations.
Gradually these fruitless debates concerning the Greek and Latin names
of plants were abandoned. In Hieronymus Bock's
Herbal (1546) there is a discussion as to whether the
Latin name Erica is applicable to the German Heath
or not, in the midst of which the author says "The plants
we know best are the least known to the Latins," rat