Jussieu, Laurent de

zhu-se-uh', Laurent de (1748-1836), a noted French botanist. Jussieu's father was a professor of botany in the Royal Garden. His uncle was a superintendent of grounds at Versailles. Both took pride in Laurent, and helped him to a knowledge of plant classification. His Genera Plantarum, a classification of plants accepted by modern botanists, was published in 1775-89. Jussieu was rewarded by a professorship in the Garden of Plants, Paris. His work in classification was carried on by De Candolle, who worked out details and made improvements. It seems natural to divide plants into flowering and flowerless; and to divide flowering plants into those with two seed leaves and those with one seed leaf; and then to divide those with two seed leaves into plants with seed pods and those with naked seeds; those with seed pods into plants with many-petaled, one-petaled, and no-petaled flowers, and so on to the family, genus, and species; but there was a day when no such suggestion had been made and botanists were quite at sea. See De Condolle; Linnaeus

Justinian I (483-565), emperor of the East. He was surnamed "the Great," His parents were Gothic peasants. His wife was an actress named Theodora. He made himself emperor in 527. He did much to restore the dignity of the empire. He was fortunate enough to have two great generals, Belisarius, who defeated the Persians and the Africans, and Narses, who put down the Ostrogoths in Italy. In 532 a fight broke out in the great hippodrome between two factions known as the Green and the Blue. The contest spread to the city and was not ended until Belisarius, taking the side of the Blues, put to death 30,000 Greens. A large part of the city, including the church of St. Sophia, afterward rebuilt, was destroyed. The reign of Justinian is remembered chiefly, however, for the publication of the Justinian Code, a codification of Roman law. It was drawn up by ten men learned in legal matters. It is considered the greatest codification ever made. It is the basis of modern law. See Code