Cordus
visited many universities and traveled widely. He was
an outstanding authority in languages, philosophy and
methods of science. He died of malaria at the age of
29 after completing five books of his Historia
Plantarum.
His herbal was important because it contained not
only medicinal plants but also many foreign "woods,"
"barks," and fruits imported from other countries. The
descriptions were more accurate than those of his
contemporaries and were developed from observing
living plants - mature and flowering. Fruits were
often included. His presentation of inflorescences was
the first really scientific treatment since
Theophrastus. He also discovered some new plant
species which he described systematically and
lucidly.
