nceps." In 1830 John Lindley published the
first edition of his _Introduction to the Natural System_, embodying a
slight modification of de Candolle's system. From the year 1832 up to
1859 great advances were made in systematic botany, both in Britain and
on the continent of Europe. The _Enchiridion_ and _Genera Plantarum_ of
S.L. Endlicher (1804-1849), the _Prodromus_ of de Candolle, and the
_Vegetable Kingdom_ (1846) of J. Lindley became the guides in systematic
botany, according to the natural system.

The least satisfactory part of all these systems was that concerned with
the lower plants or Cryptogams as contrasted with the higher or
flowering plants (Phanerogams). The development of the compound
microscope rendered possible the accurate study of their life-histories;
and the publication in 1851 of the results of Wilhelm Hofmeister's
researches on the comparative embryology of the higher Cryptogamia shed
a flood of light on their relationships to each other and to the higher
plants, and supplied the basis for the distinction of the great groups
Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta and Phanerogamae, the last named
including Gymnospermae and Angiospermae.

A system of classification for the Phanerogams, or, as they are
frequently now called, Spermatophyta (seed-plants), which has been much
used in Great Britain and in America, is that of Bentham and Hooker,
whose _Genera Plantarum_ (1862-1883) is a descriptive account of all the
genera of flowering plants, based on their careful examination. The
arrangement is a modification of that adopted by the de Candolles.
Another system differing somewhat in detail is that of A.W. Eichler
(Berlin, 1883), a modified form of which was elaborated by Dr Adolf
Engler of Berlin, the principal editor of _Die natrurliche
Pflanzenfamilien_.

The study of the anatomy and physiology of plants did not keep pace with
the advance in classification. Nehemiah Grew and his contemporary
Marcello Malpighi were the earliest discoverers in the department of
plant anatomy. Both authors laid an account of the results of their
study of plant structure before the Royal Society of London almost at
the same time in 1671. Malpighi's complete work, _Anatome Plantarum_,
appeared in 1675 and Grew's _Anatomy of Plants_ in 1682. For more than a
hundred years the study of internal structure was neglected. In 1802
appeared the _Traite d'anatomie et de physiologie vegetale_ of C.F.B. de
Mirbel (1776-1854), wh