BICENTENARY OF LINNMVS 75 



appeared, the study of natural science was in a more or less chaotic state. 

 Doubtless much knowledge of living things had been acquired before his 

 time, but hitherto that knowledge had not been systematized. It was 

 reserved for Linne not only greatly to increase the stores of learning, but to 

 indicate how it was possible to group and classify the multitudinous forms 

 of life so as to show that all formed part of one grand harmonious whole. 

 One can hardly exaggerate his influence upon the study of the natural 

 sciences. His was one of those creative, fertile minds from which all who 

 made his acquaintance, either personally or through his writings, were bound 

 to catch inspiration. He must have had a most engaging personality, and 

 was undoubtedly filled with enthusiasm. How otherwise could he have 

 drawn annually to Upsala some fifteen hundred pupils from all parts of 

 Europe? His "Systcma Naturae," "Genera Plantarum," "Critica Bo- 

 tanica," and other famous works, are unquestionably notable landmarks in 

 the history of natural science. Science and their influence we can to some 

 extent estimate ; but who can estimate the profound influence he must have 

 exerted on the many thousand pupils who listened to his prelections, and 

 who carried his enthusiasm with them into every civilized country! Hon- 

 ored and admired in his own day, Carl von Linne will ever continue to be 

 recognized as one of the foremost men of all time. 



The Royal Society of Canada. 



The President and Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada beg to offer 

 their cordial thanks to the New York Academy of Sciences for its kind 

 invitation to participate in the exercises commemorative of the two hundredth 

 anniversary of the birth of Carl von Linne, and express their regret that they 

 are unable to send a delegate to personally represent their Society on this 

 most Interesting occasion. 



The Royal Society of Canada, which has just closed its Twenty-fifth 

 Annual Meeting, shares with the New York Academy of Sciences and with 

 kindred associations all over the world, in its high appreciation of the eminent 

 services rendered to the natural sciences by the transcendent ability, judg- 

 ment and foresight so remarkably displayed by the distinguished Swedish 

 naturalist of the eighteenth century. To him is due in no small measure 

 the modern system of scientific nomenclature, and by him were laid the 

 foundations of the classification of animals and plants upon which biologists 

 in all departments have since built their structures of scientific knowledge. 

 It is therefore In the highest degree fitting that the name of so great a man 

 as Linne, the precursor of a long line of eminent philosophers, should be 



