BICENTENARY OF LINNAEUS 35 



majus vulgatus," and "Gramen alterum et vulgare." In the first publication 

 by Linnaeus, it appears as " Poa spiculis ovatis compressis muticis." I 

 think that Linnseus and his contemporaries had much more cause than 

 we to exclaim, "Those horrible Latin names!" To us the same plant is 

 known as Poa pratensis L., the name adopted by Linnseus in his "Species 

 Plantarum." 



The lectures given by Linnaeus for Professor Rudbeck became very 

 popular. This was especially the case after his return from his Lapland 

 journey. Some persons, especially Dr. Nils Rosen, became jealous of his 

 success, and induced the university faculty to pass a resolution by which no 

 one who had not taken the corresponding degree was permitted to give 

 university lectures. Linnseus had not yet received his doctor's degree, and 

 hence was debarred. As Holland was offering at that time excellent facilities 

 both in medicine and in botany, and as living expenses were lower there than 

 elsewhere, Linnseus decided to visit that country and take his examinations 

 there. He received his doctor's diploma at Harderwijk, and afterwards 

 went to Leyden, where he became acquainted with three of the greatest 

 botanists of the time, Boerhaave, Burmann and Gronovius. George 

 Cliffort, the wealthy burgomaster of Amsterdam and president of the East 

 India Company, was a great lover of plants, and had a splendid botanical 

 garden at Hartecamp as well as a rich library and herbarium. On the 

 recommendation of Boerhaave, Linnseus became Cliffort's physician, and 

 curator of his collections and garden. Here he lived in luxury, beloved as 

 a son. 



Cliffort furnished Linnseus with means to publish five of his first books, 

 "Systema Naturse," "Fundamenta Botanica," "Bibliotheca Botanica," 

 "Genera Plantarum" and "Flora Lapponica," the manuscript of which he 

 had brought with him from Sweden. In the first of these, Linnseus presents 

 his system of classification. He divides Nature into three kingdoms,— the 

 mineral, vegetable and animal. In the vegetable kingdom he brings out 

 an altogether new classification, based upon the sexual organs of plants. 

 He divides the kingdom into 24 classes, the first 23 containing the phan- 

 erogams, and the last the cryptogams. In the first 11 classes are included 

 plants which have from 1 to 12 free and practically equal stamens; in the 

 12th and the 13th, plants with many stamens; in the 14th and 15th, plants 

 with 4 and 6 stamens respectively, of which 2 are decidedly shorter. In the 

 16th, 17th and 18th classes the stamens are united by their filaments, in 

 the 19th they are united by their anthers, and in the 20th they are adnate to 

 the pistil. In the 21st and 22d the flowers are unisexual, i.e., the stamens 

 and pistils are in different flowers (on the same individual in the 21st and on 

 different individuals in the 22d) ; and the plants of the 23d class have both 



