BICENTENARY OF LINNAEUS 69 



Geh. Rat Professor Dr. H. Rosenbusch, University, Heidelberg. 



(Honorary Member of the Academy.) 



. . . Leider ist es mir bei der Flille von Arbeit, die vor mir liegt, nicht 

 moglich, Ihrem Wiinsche [for a document to be read at the Bicentenary] zu 

 entsprechen, aber Sie diirfen iiberzeugt sein, dass meine Gedanken und 

 Wunsche am 23 Mai bei Ihnen in New York sein werden. Moge Ihr Fest 

 den schonsten Verlauf nehmen und ein freundlicher Stern iiber der schonen 

 Briicke walten, die den Namen eines der bedeutsamsten Begriinder der 

 Naturwissenschaften tragen soil. 



Ihre Nation gibt der ganzen Welt ein nachahmungswiirdiges Beispiel, 

 indem sie ein stolzes Werk der modernen Technik nach einem Forscher 

 benennt, dessen ganzes Leben dem hochsten menschlichen Gute, der 

 Wissenschaft, geweiht war. 



Regia Societas Scientiarum Bohemica, Prague. 



The Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences in Prague, fully appreciating 

 the importance of celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of Carl von 

 Linn^'s birth by the New York Academy of Sciences, is glad to join the 

 sister institutions in honoring this great naturalist, whose efforts in the first 

 splendid achievements and developments of biology are of perpetual value. 



When, in the beginning of modern times, in the multitude of known and 

 newly discovered organic forms, there was a complete chaos to be feared 

 instead of an exact distinction of them, it was the genius of Linn6 which 

 arranged the masses of rav%' material into the scientific edifice of a strictly 

 logical system. Linn6's epochal "Systema Naturae" laid the foundation for 

 all future systematics of animals and plants. 



Introducing the descriptive method and terminology, establishing a clear 

 definition of each species in its genus, order and class, Linne gained a firm 

 basis for an exact deduction of organic forms. It was Linn6 who at the 

 same time united the analytical and synthetical tendencies of his predecessors 

 into an efficient discipline. 



Linn^'s method has facilitated the knowledge of the flora and fauna of 

 whole territories, and we have to thank this method that also in Bohemia 

 very early efforts for a systematical analysis of the organic world have been 

 biviUght to full efficiency. 



The Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences, the oldest center of scientific 



