Species

64 Species

of the earth and the water. Of the earth are sub-divided into the Crocodiles of Bresilia, and

the Scincus: the Crocodiles of the water into this here described, which is the vulgar one,

and that of Nilus, of all which we shall entreat in order, one successively following another.

But I will not contend about the Genus or Species of this word, for my purpose is to open

their several natures, so far as I have learned, wherein the works of Almighty God may be

known, and will leave the strife of words to them that spend their wits about tearms and

syllables only. ... Thus much I nde, that the Ancients had three general tearms for all

egge-breeding Serpents. Namely, Rana, Test u d o, Lacerta: And therefore I may forbear to

entreat of Crocodilus as a Genus, and handle it as a Species, or particular kinde.^63

Here we see the word species used as a synonym for “kind” in English, and the use
of the logical term genus for the enclosing class.
Although a Protestant and friend of Zwingli, Gesner was regarded well by all,
except his rival Ulisse Aldrovandi, who plagiarized him and sneered when referring
to him,^64 although Aldrovandi is regarded by Nordenskiöld as superior to Gesner
in classication and methods, if not accuracy.^65 Stresemann notes that while his
arrangement of species was novel, diverging from the alphabetical order Gesner and
the bestiaries and etymologies used, Aldrovandi’s was no improvement, based on
beak structure.^66 One of Gesner’s friends was Caspar Bauhin, to whom we now turn.

Cesalpino and Bauhin: The Beginnings of Modern Taxonomy

True investigation of nature consists not only in deducing rules from exact and com-

parative observation of the phenomena of nature, but in discovering the genetic forces

from which the causal connexion, cause and effect may be derived. In pursuit of these

objects, it is compelled to be constantly correcting existing conceptions and theories,

producing new conceptions and new theories, and thus adjusting our own ideas more

and more to the nature of things. The understanding does not prescribe to the objects,

but the objects to the understanding. The Aristotelian philosophy and its medieval

form, scholasticism, proceeds in exactly the contrary way; it is not properly concerned

with acquiring new conceptions and new theories by means of investigation, for con-

ceptions and theories have been once and for all established; experience must conform

itself to the ready-made system of thought; whatever does not so conform must be

dialectically twisted and explained till it apparently ts in with the whole.

Julius Sachs^67

The nineteenth-century historian of botany Julius Sach’s rather cynical view of medi-

eval and Renaissance botany does an injustice to the writers themselves. For exam-

ple, Luca Ghini (1490–1556), who founded the botanical garden at Pisa for Cosimo

de Medici, introduced the practice of herbariums, in which plants were dried and

(^63) Topsell 1607, 682.
(^64) Raven 1953, chapter 5.
(^65) Nordenskiöld 1929, 95.
(^66) Stresemann 1919, 22.
(^67) Sachs 1890, 86.