Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/407

 Rh Dorstenia, with its obsolete flowers, devoid of all beauty, alludes to the antiquated and uncouth book of Dorstenius.

Hernandia, an American plant, the most beautiful of all trees in its foliage, but furnished with trifling blossoms, bears the name of a botanist highly favoured by fortune, and allowed an ample salary for the purpose of investigating the natural history of the Western world, but whose labours have not answered the expense. On the contrary

Magnolia with its noble leaves and flowers, and

Dillenia with its beautiful blossoms and fruit, serve to immortalize two of the most meritorious among botanists.

Linnæa, "a depressed, abject Lapland plant, long overlooked, flowering at an early age, was named by Gronovius after its prototype Linnæus."

In pursuance of the same idea Dicksonia, a beautiful and curious fern, is well devoted to our great cryptogamist; Knappia, a small and singular grass, to an author celebrated for his minute and curious drawings of that tribe; Sprengelia, to one distinguished for