BICENTENARY OF LINN^US 37 



thoroughly acquainted with almost all the literature referring to American 

 botany, such as Morison's "Plantarum Historia," Plukcnett's "Almagestrum 

 Botanicum" and " Phytographia," Petiver's " Gazophylacium," Sloane's 

 "Jamaica," Plumier's "Plantarum x\mericanarum Genera," "Plantarum 

 Americanarum Fasciculus Primus" and "Filicetum Americanum," Catesby's 

 "Historia Naturalis," and, later, Cornuti's "Canadensium Plantarum 

 Historia." 



After completing the "Hortus Cliffortianus," Linnaeus returned to 

 Leyden, where he spent some time helping Gronovius with the editing of 

 his "Flora Virginica," based on a large collection of plants collected by 

 Cla\1;on. Here again he came in contact with American plants. 



Linnaeus then returned to Sweden and became a practicing physician. 

 He was soon appointed professor of medicine at Upsala, but by common 

 agreement he exchanged chairs with Rosen, who held the professorship of 

 botany. He now began work upon the most important book of his life, 

 his "Species Plantarum." In this he tried to include a short description of 

 every known species of plant, together with the most important synonyms 

 and citations. In this book the Linnsean binomial system of nomenclature 

 was used for the first time. Linnaeus was not the first to give plants names, 

 nor was he the first to name genera. Many Latin plant-names had come 

 down from antiquity, while others had been proposed by his predecessors. 

 Men like Tournefort and Micheli had in some cases clearer ideas of genera 

 than Linnaeus himself. Neither was Linnaeus the first one to use binomials. 

 In Cornuti's work on Canadian plants, for example, we find almost as many 

 binomials as polynomials; but it is doubtful if Linnaeus had seen Cornuti's 

 book when he first wrote his "Species Plantarum." He does not cite it in 

 the first edition, but does so in the second. Linnaeus was, however, the first 

 one to use binomials systematically and consistently. Before his time, 

 botanists had recognized genera, and applied to them Latin nouns as names. 

 In order to designate species, they added to these nouns adjective descriptive 

 phrases. These consisted sometimes of a single adjective, as in Quercus 

 alba, the white oak, but more often of a long string of adjectives and adjective 

 modifiers, as in the case of the blue-grass mentioned above. The specific 

 name had hitherto been merely a description modifying the generic name; 

 from this time it became really a name, although a single adjective in form. 

 An illustration of the pre-Linnaean form of plant-names might be had if, 

 instead of "Grace Darling," one should say, "Mr. Darling's beautiful, 

 slender, graceful, blue-eyed girl with long golden curls and rosy cheeks." 

 "Grace" is just as descriptive of the girl as this whole string of adjectives. 

 It may be that "Grace" is not always applicable to the person to whom the 

 name is applied; but this is also often the case with many specific plant- 



