Note 1120 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

Dioscorides and Galen knew from 450 to 600 plants (Winckler, Geschichte der Botanik, 1854, pp. 34, 40); but, according to Cuvier (Eloges, vol. iii. p. 468), Linnæus, in 1778, ‘en indiquait environ huit mille espèces;’ and Meyen (Geog. of Plants, p. 4) says, at the time of Linnæus's death, ‘about 8,000 species were known.’ (Dr. Whewell, in his Bridgewater Treatise, p. 247, says, ‘about 10,000.’) Since then the progress has been uninterrupted; and in Henslow's Botany, 1837, p. 136, we are told that ‘the number of species already known and classified in works of botany amounts to about 60,000.’ Ten years later, Dr. Lindley (Vegetable Kingdom, 1847, p. 800) states them at 92,930; and two years afterwards, Mr. Balfour says ‘about 100,000.’ Balfour's Botany, 1849, p. 560. Such is the rate at which our knowledge of nature is advancing. To complete this historical note, I ought to have mentioned, that in 1812, Dr. Thomson says ‘nearly 30,000 species of plants have been examined and described.’ Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society, p. 21.