86 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Bartram in 1737: "The Systema Naturae is a curious perform- 

 ance for a young man, but his coining a new set of names 

 for plants tends but to embarrass and perplex the study of Botany. 

 As to his system, * * * botanists are not agreed about it. 

 Very few like it. Be that as it will, he is certainly a very ingeni- 

 ous man, and a great naturalist."* Six years later he wrote to 

 Linnaeus himself: 



" Your system I can tell you obtains much in America. Mr. 

 Clayton and Dr. Colden at Albany are complete professors, as is 

 Dr. Mitchell at Urbana, in Virginia. "f 



This may not seem a very numerous following, but twelve 

 years after this (1755)5 onr y seven English botanists were men- 

 tioned by Collinson in response to a request from Linnaeus to 

 know what botanical people in London were skilled in his plan. J 



It is a fact not often referred to that during his period of poverty 

 and struggles, Linnaeus received, through the influence of his 

 patron, Boerhaave, an appointment in the colony of Surinam. 

 His prospects for a successful career in Europe had, however, 

 brightened, and he decided not to come to America. 



His interest in American natural history was always very 

 great, and his descriptions of New World forms seem to have been 

 drawn up with especial care. Garden, Colden, Bartram, Mitchell, 

 Clayton and Ellis were all, as we have seen, active in supplying 

 him with materials, and his pupils, Kalm, Alstroem, Loefling, 

 Kuhn and Rolander (who collected for many years in Suri- 

 nam) sent him many notes and specimens. 



The progress of systematic zoology in the interval between 

 Ray and Linnaeus may perhaps best be illustrated by some brief 

 statistical references. The former, in 1690, made an estimate of 

 the number of animals and plants known at that time. 



The number of beasts, including serpents, he placed at 150, ad- 



* Darlington, p. 106. t Smith, i, p. 9. 



J Smith, i, p. 33. 



