LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 47 



which iu their actual state seemed likely to overwhelm the 

 architect. 



Under such circumstances the need of a leadin^^ fundamental 

 idea must have been deeply felt, a system by which the nume- 

 rous forms of the Vegetable Kingdom could in an easily intel- 

 ligible way be so classified that not only the experienced, but 

 even beginners might easily search for and find them. As far as 

 attempts at systems were concerned, there certainly Avas no lack. 

 Most of our " patres hotanici " had proposed one or another as 

 fruits of a lifelong, toilsome work ; yet none of them satisfied 

 even the modest demands of those times. Moreover, the most 

 celebrated of them all, was so difficult of comprehension, that its 

 expounder, Tournefort, thought a whole volume of plates requi- 

 site for its satisfactory explanation. 



It was under such circumstances that the Upsala student, then 

 22 years old, exhibited to his teacher Olof Rudbeck the younger, 

 some outlines of a system of the Vegetable Kingdom, wliich he 

 published in 1735 under the name of the Sexual System. With 

 astonishing rapidity this system supplanted all predecessors. 

 It excellently satisfied the then pressing needs : it was so simple 

 that a cliild could grasp it without any special diflBculty, and it 

 included within its well-defined " Classes " and " Orders " all 

 species hitherto known ; for distinguishing characters it turned to 

 those parts which are most essentinl for the continued existence 

 and multiplication of the plants. No wonder, therefore, that the 

 contemporaries and nearest successors of Linn?eus rejoiced at the 

 discovery of this Ariadne-thread of the labyrinth which during 

 centuries had been sought in vain. Many of his disciples regarded 

 the sexual system as his most eminent work, and considered as 

 almost heretical every attempt to produce any other. 



Their manner of procedure is all the more apt to arouse our 

 astonishment, since Linnaeus himself with clear, unmistakable 

 insight saw and openly expressed the weakness of his system. It 

 did, to be sure, facilitate the naming of plants after examination ; 

 but the near or distant affinity of one form to another aa as, by no 

 means, distinctly or clearly indicated. At this early period, there- 

 fore, he put forward the establisliment of a Natural System as the 

 " Alpha and Omega among the desiderata of Botany " ; through- 

 out his long life he endeavoured to find this, and encouraged others 

 to take part in the work. The small number of plants till then 

 discovered rendered it, however, impossible to attain the desired 

 goal. Being too honest to publish as complete that which he 

 himself considered deficient, he was content with merely selecting 

 certain" Ordiues Naturales." The method and rulesforconnecting 

 them together into a regular systematic whole he left to later 

 workers — expecting, however, as he put it, that the complete solu- 

 tion of this problem would only be reached coevally with that of the 

 quadrature of tlie circle. Up to our days botanists have tried to 

 raise the edifice of a Natural System of plants, without getting 



