PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 85 



servations and his correspondence with the savans of Europe. 

 4 - Finally," says Jones, " having attained a venerable age, and 

 to the last intent upon the prosecution of some favorite physical 

 researches, he fell in sleep, as did Pliny the Elder, within sight 

 of Vesuvius, and upon the shores of the beautiful Bay of 

 Naples."* 



Jones, in his " History of Georgia," [I, p. 444], refers to the 

 Rev. Stephen Hales " equally renowned as a naturalist and a 

 divine" who lived for a time in Georgia during the last cen 

 tury. Can this have been the famous author of "Vegetable 

 Static r" I have been unable to find any allusion to a sojourn in 

 America, in the published notices of the English Hales, and 

 equally unable to discover a second Hales in the annals of science. 



The central figure among eighteenth-century naturalists was of 

 course Linnaeus. His Systema Naturae was an epoch-making 

 work, and with the publication of its first edition at Leyden in 

 1 735 the study of the biological sciences received an impress which 

 was soon felt in America. 



In 1738, while in Leyden, he assisted Gronovius in editing the 

 notes sent by Clayton from Virginia, and it is evident that Lin 

 naeus was already, at the age of thirty, recognized by European 

 botanists as an authority upon the plants of America. It was in 

 this year that he visited Paris. He at once made his way to the 

 Garden of Plants, and entered the lecture-room of Bernard de 

 Jussieu, who was describing some exotics to his pupils in Latin. 

 There was one which the demonstrator had not yet determined, 

 and which seemed to puzzle him. The Swede looked on in 

 silence at first, but observing the hesitation of the learned Profes 

 sor, cried out: " Haec plantain faciem Americanam habet." 

 Jussieu turned about quickly with the exclamation, " You are 

 Linnaeus." 



It is interesting to notice how strongly the Linnasan reforms 

 took root in American soil, and how soon. Collinson wrote to 



* History of Georgia. 



