L1NNEA.N SOCIETY OF LONDON. 23 



indeed, the interesting dissertation on the buds of trees (Amoen. 

 Acad. ii. p. 163) be regarded as such. 



It will not be irrelevant briefly to consider, at this point, the 

 interesting question as to the extent to which Linnaeus made use 

 of the microscope. In his early days he seems not to have used it 

 at all, for in the introduction to the ' Systema Naturce ' (1735) he 

 says, almost boastfully, that he had examined nearly all the flowers 

 of plants with the naked eye only, and without any microscope. 

 Somewhat later, during his stay iu Leyden (1737-8), he had special 

 opportunities for microscopical work, since one of his friends there 

 was " Lieberkiihn, a Prussian, having in his possession incomparable 

 microscopes," who gave microscopical demonstrations. Linnaeus 

 relates that, on one such occasion, he was shown the spermatozoa 

 of a dog (' Generatio ambigena,' Amoen. Acad. vi. p. 4 ; ' Sponsalia 

 Plantarum,' Amoen. Acad. i. p. 79), wheu he drew conclusions as 

 to their nature antagonistic to those of Leeuwenhoek, the original 

 discoverer. But he did not apparently pursue his microscopical 

 studies with any ardour. Among the dissertations forming the 

 ' Anioenitates Academicas ' there are several dealing with topics 

 that might be supposed to involve the use of the microscope, such 

 as that on the ' Seraina Muscorum ' (Amoen. Acad. ii. p. 261); 

 but in only one is there a definite statement to that effect. In the 

 dissertation ' Mundus Invisibilis,' in which an account of the course 

 of microscopical discovery is given (Amoen. Acad. vii. p. 399), the 

 author describes his observations on the Smut of Wheat ( Ustilarjo) 

 made with a Cuffiuian microscope under the direction of Linnaeus. 

 This is all the information on the subject that I have been able to 

 discover. 



Nor can it be urged that Linnaeus has strong claims to dis- 

 tinction as a Physiologist. Though he had as contemporaries such 

 men as Hales, Duhamel, and Bonnet, and was in constant com- 

 munication with Haller, who was distinguished alike as physiologist 

 and systematist, Linnaeus has not, so far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, left on record a single physiological experiment. Never- 

 theless he proved himself to be an acute observer of physiological 

 phenomena in nature. Thus in the dissertation ' Somnus 

 Plantarum ' (Amoen. Acad, iv.) he describes the daily movements 

 of leaves ; in the ' Philosophia Botanica ' he registers the hours of 

 opening and closing — the Vigils, as he calls them — of flowers, 

 fancifully arranging them so as to constitute a " floral clock." The 

 dissertation ' Calendarium Florae ' (Amoen. Acad, iv.) contains a 

 number of phaenological observations as to the dates of leafing, 

 flowering, fruiting, and leaf-fall of plants growing in the Botanic 

 Garden at Upsala. Further, in the ' Philosophia ' there is a mass 

 of facts illustrating such important biological features as the 

 distribution of plants in relation to climate and soil, and the various 

 modes of dispersal of seeds, Avhich may be regarded as the 

 foundation of that method of study which, under the name 

 " QEcology," has developed of late into so considerable a super- 

 structure. 



