BAUHIN

BAUHIN, JOHN, a distinguished botanist, was born at Lyons in the year 1541. He was the son of an eminent physician, who quitted France, his native country, on account of religion, and settled at Basel. In early life he travelled with Gesner, the celebrated naturalist, and collected plants in the Alps, in France, and in Italy, for the purpose of the great botanical work which he afterwards accomplished. He first practised medicine at Basel, where he was also elected professor of rhetoric in 1566. He then resided for some time at Yverdu, and was afterwards invited to be physician to the duke of Wirttemberg at Montbelliard; a situation in which he spent the remaining forty years of his life. He devoted his time chiefly to botany, on which he bestowed great labour, comparing authors, ancient and modern, with one another, and with nature, and collecting information from all quarters. He likewise prosecuted other branches of natural history, and published an account of Medicinal Waters throughout Europe, especially in the duchy of Wirttemberg; together with a particular account of the mineral spring of Boll, and the natural history of the place. His great work on plants was not completed at his death, which happened in 1613. A society at Yverdu published in 1619 the Prodromus; but it was not till 1650 and 1651 that the work itself appeared, in three vols. folio, entitled Historia Plantarum nova et absolutissima, cum Auctorum consensu et dissensu circa eas. This performance, with all its defects, has been pronounced by Haller to be without an equal. The plants are numerous, generally well described and discriminated; and many new species are added. It is still considered a standard work; and the names of John Bauhin and his brother rank high among the founders and first promoters of botanical science.