REFORM OF LINN^US. 387 



Pink ; the Liliacece, with six petals, as the Tulip, Narcissus, Hya- 

 cinth, Lily ; the PapilionacecB, which are leguminous plants, the 

 flower of which resembles a butterfly, as Peas and Beans ; and finally, 

 the Anomalous, as Violet, Nasturtium, and others. 



Though this system was found to be attractive, as depending, in an 

 evident way, on the most conspicuous part of the plant, the flower, it 

 is easy to see that it was much less definite than systems like that of 

 Rivinus, Hermann, and Ray, waich were governed by number. But 

 Tournefort succeeded in giving to the characters of genera a degree 

 of rigor never before attained, and abstracted them in a separate form. 

 We have already seen that the reception of botanical Systems has 

 depended much on their arrangement into Genera. 



Tournefort's success was also much promoted by the author insert- 

 ing in his work a figure of a flower and fruit belonging to each genus ; 

 and the figures, drawn by Aubriet, were of great merit. The study 

 of botany was thus rendered easy, for it could be learned by turning 

 over the leaves of a book. In spite of various defects, these advantages 

 gave this writer an ascendancy which lasted, from 1700, when his 

 book appeared, for more than half a century. For though Linnaeus 

 began to publish in 1735, his method and his nomenclature were not 

 generally adopted till 1760. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE REFORM OF LINN.ECS. 



Sect. 1. Introduction of the Reform. 



A LTHOUGH, perhaps, no man of science ever exercised a greater 

 -* sway than Linnaeus, or had more enthusiastic admirers, the most 

 intelligent botanists always speak of him, not as a great discoverer, 

 but as a judicious and strenuous Reformer. Indeed, in his own lists 

 of botanical writers, he places himself among the " Reformatores ;" and 

 it is apparent that this is the nature of his real claim to admiration ; 

 for the doctrine of the sexes of plants, even if he had been the first to 

 establish it, was a point of botanical physiology, a province of the 



