the late Sir J. E. Smith, 5 



whole collection and library have been purchased, I believe, by 

 the Linnaean Society for L. 5000. 



The first point of view under which we naturally look to the 

 botanical character of the president, is as the disciple of Lin- 

 naeus and the expounder of his system ; and we do so as well 

 from his enthusiastic admiration of the Swedish naturalist, as 

 from possessing in his herbarium the very plants from which 

 Linnaeus made his descriptions, thereby being enabled to cor- 

 rect his errors and inadvertencies as well as to explain his --prin- 

 ciples. 



There can be little doubt, I think, that what Newton was in 

 mathematical science, Linnaeus was in natural history, because 

 both advanced their favourite studies in the same manner, viz. 

 by laying down correct principles of examination, — principles 

 which have been found applicable to the further and advanced 

 state of science. I do not mean to put botany on a level with 

 astronomy, or the study of natural history in competition with 

 a study of mathematical science, nor have I any wish to place 

 Linnaeus in competition with Newton. For who shall place 

 any bust in the temple of fame except far below the bust of 

 Newton. But every man may be called great, who displays 

 original powers of mind in the investigation of nature, and this 

 was Linnaeus's greatness. From his time, natural history as- 

 sumed a new character, in classification, in the formation of ge- 

 nera and species, upon principles which time only affects by 

 showing to be correct. In nomenclature, in definitions, in pre- 

 cision of language, and in accuracy of examination, he has shown 

 himself to be the greatest naturalist, because on these principles 

 the first. In botany these qualities were more particularly dis- 

 played, and the advantages of his principles of study were soon 

 apparent. Botany, from being the most perplexed and repul- 

 sive of all studies, confined to the studious and laborious, be- 

 came exalted in the scale of the exact sciences, inviting even to 

 the careless, the indolent, and the fashionable. Viewing bo- 

 tany, as we do at the present moment, in all its correctness of 

 language, its precision and arrangement, we are apt to forget 

 the merits of those master spirits who cleared away the dark- 

 ness and confusion which hung around the subject when they 

 commenced their labours. 



