1 8 I'KUCEEUINGS OF THl? 



much cultivated : in oiio instance a retroj^ression occurred to 

 the ancients ; and in another the good work of the great Italian 

 was nuitilatcd and borrowed without acknowledgment. But 

 Lohd, ]iay, and Tournefort studied and wrote after a lapse of 

 lime; and the direction of their thoughts and the nature of 

 their methods proved that the IcHsonsof Cjesalpinus had not been 

 forgotten. Tlie number of plants which had been described was 

 very considerable at that time. Genera were numerous and the 

 great divisions were more or less recognized. But all this 

 knowledge was in confusion when the genius of Linnaeus arose. 

 It has been well and truly said that Linmous was tlie great 

 reformer in tlie Classificatory Sciences ; and it is evident that 

 comparatively early in his career he grasped and elaborated the 

 primary requirement of botanical science. He saw that a de- 

 scriptive science (a branch of knowledge which compares and 

 utilizes the idea of likeness, Ihe most trivial as well as the most 

 important details of which require unmistakable definition) cannot 

 become stable, and indeed cannot advance without a descriptive 

 lauguage. The same word must be employed in the same sense, 

 the same idea must be expressed by the same word, and terms 

 must be fixed quantities. 



Tournefort had comprehended the necessity for fixed terms ; 

 but, as De Candolle writes, Liinia?us " really created and fixed 

 til is botanical language, and this is his fairest claim to cele- 

 brity. Eor by this fixation of language he has shed clearness 

 and precision over all parts of the science." 



The distinguished author of the ' Philosophy and History of the 

 Inductive Sciences ' reinarl<s: — "The formation of an exact and 

 extensive language for botany has been executed with a degree of 

 skill and felicity which, before it was attained, could hardly have 

 been dreamt of as attainable. Every part of a phnit has been 

 named ; and the form of every part, even the most mimite, has 

 had a large assemblage of descriptive terms appropriated to it, 

 by means of which the botanist can convey and receive know- 

 ledge of form and structure as exactly as if each minute part were 

 presented to him vastly magnified. This acquisition was part of 

 the Linnean reform." 



There is no doubt that the establishment of a terminology and 

 the refoim of the descriptive part of botany were of i>rimary 

 importance to Linnajus, and that his systematic work and his 

 vast industry in recording forms would have been impossible 

 without those important matters which the previous generations 

 of naturalists had barely considered. 



Linna-us appears to have seen, very early in his career, tiiat 

 loose and popular language are incompatible with scientific pre- 

 cision, and that scientific phraseology must be a rigid mechanism. 

 Hence his terminology was really the instrument by which he 

 efl'ected all his reforms in Natural History, and which facilitated 

 his wouderful descriptive work. 



The ' Fundamenta Botauica ' supplied a great want : it gave 



