250 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF OUR 



Micbeli wa« an excellent morphologist for liistime, aud inade some very 

 interesting discoveries iu bis line; Dillenins, however, was principally 

 a systematizer ; lie knew and described almost one tbonsand species 

 of silgsc, licbens, mosses, and ferns. 



At last Carl von Linne appeared on tlie scene. He is known to every 

 man of cnltnre as one of the greatest of botanists, and as a scholar wbo 

 reformed and influenced tbe whole study of natural history. He pro- 

 posed what is called the sexual system, under which he classified all known 

 plants ; he introduced the nomenclature now in use ; be raised botany 

 to the dignity of a true science. Occupied as he was with tbe phanero- 

 gams, he found no time, and had, x)erhaps, no inclination to investigate 

 tbe cryptogams. He contented himself with dividing this, the twenty- 

 fourth class of bis system, into tbe four orders of ferns, mosses, alga;, 

 and fungi, and distributing among them the materials furnished by 

 Dillenins and Micbeli. In his JSpecics Plmitarum be mentions about eight 

 hundred kinds of cryi)togams, distributed among fifty genera. Linne's 

 indirect influence on this class of i)lants is much more important, since 

 he laid down general laws which bis successors were to apply in de- 

 tail. The following are some of the prominent men who carried out 

 Linn6's ideas in the treatment of the cryptogams : Gmelin, Turner, 

 Vaucher, Dillwyn, and especially Aghard the elder, devoted themselves 

 to the study of tbe algae. Erik Acharius laid the foundation for the 

 study of lichens, and was assisted by Florke, Wallrotb, and Ernst 

 Meyer. Fungi were studied by Christian Persoon, with the assistance 

 of Schaefler, BuUiard, Bolton, and Link. Jobann Hedwig inaugurated 

 the study of mosses, and was seconded by Bridel, Schwagricben, and for 

 exotic mosses, by tbe elder Hooker. Ferns were made a siiecialty by 

 Olaus Swartz, Willdenow, Kaulfuss, Schkuhr, Beruhardi, and others. 

 Hedwig must be considered by far tbe most ingenious and eminent 

 investigator of this period; be might properly be called the Linn(§ of 

 cryptogams. His researches are read with preference. The Austrians 

 especially are proud of him as their fellow-countryman. It would occupy 

 too much time to describe tbe researches of Hedwig and the others, 

 and I must therefore deny myself that pleasure. 



If we examine what was done in the investigation of cryptogams 

 during the period of the Linnean systems, we shall find that tbe eiforts 

 of botanists were chiefly directed to the discovery of new forms, to 

 make short diagnoses, and to classify them artificially according to 

 certain characteristics. Hedwig and the other authors of that time 

 furnish only a few though valuable data concerning their peculiarities, 

 formation, and anatomical structure. It was left to the most recent 

 epoch of botanical studies to unite these isolated materials into a 

 harmonic whole. In this epoch, comprising scarcely more than three 

 decades, botany, and especially tbe knowledge of cryptogams, has 

 made immense progress. 



The representatives of Linne's views had accumulated a mass of 



