THE EYE IN EVOLUTION 



Fig. 4.— Carl Linn.t^us (1707-1778). 



Carl Linnsous, son of a Lutheran Swedish pastor and Professor of Botany 

 at Uppsala, is universally acknowledged as the Father of Scientific Botany. 

 His main work was his System of Nature which passed through 1 2 editions in 

 his lifetime following its initial publication in 1741. He had a passion for 

 classification. Not only did he classify in a system based on their reproductive 

 organs the 18,000 species of plants known to him, which he and his pupils 

 travelled far and wide to collect (one of them, for example, accompanied 

 Captain Cook on his first voyage, 1768-71) ; but he also classified animals, 

 diseases and minerals — even past and jiresent scientists in a system of military 

 rank with himself as general. He introduced the now universally adopted 

 nomenclature of plants and animals, first the generic name indicating the 

 genus, and second the specific name indicating the species. His garden is 

 still tended in Uppsala. The Linnean Society of London which jDOSsesses his 

 library and collections was founded in 1788. 



This portrait of " Carl v. Linne astat. 67", lent me by the Linnean Society, 

 is from the original by Krafft, the Swedish artist, who painted it in 1774 for 

 the College of Physicians at Stockholm of which Linnaeus was one of the 

 founders. 



