258 THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 



passed from one kingdom of nature into another. Reaumur, in turn, regretting 

 the wrong which he might possibly have done to Peyssonnel by his silence, gave 

 uttei'ance to these generous expressions : " The attention which M. Peyssonnel 

 had brought to his observations ought to have convinced me sooner that these 

 flowers, with which M. Marsigli had endowed the different productions just 

 spoken of, were in reality minute animals."* 



The tenor of all the letters written by Bernard to Linnseus, or by the latter 

 to the former, is the communication and discussion of novelties like these. 

 "These things," says Bernard ingenuously to Linnteus, "constitute your delight 

 and mine : Hoc res sunt tuce, sunt mece delicice." At one time it is Linn^us who 

 consults Bernard on some difficulty with which he is occupied. What is the 

 Peloria, that species of metamorphosis which transforms certain flowers, the 

 flowei's of the Linaria, for example, from irregular flowers, as they usually are, 

 into requJar ones 1 Must this be considered a monstrosity ? " That," replies 

 Bernard, "is what the seeds sown cannot fail to teach us." Nor was he mis- 

 taken; the Peloria is reproduced by the slip, and is not reproduced by the 

 seeds. Every one now knows with how new a light the admirable theory of 

 M. De Candolle on the primal symmetry of beings, t has elucidated this 

 phenomenon, which, on examination, has been found much more general than 

 was at first supposed : | the Peloria is the primitive and regular type of the 

 irregular flowers. At another time, it is Bernard who announces to Linnteus 

 some new miracle of science : Sed quid moror ? Piece nova panduntur orhi 

 litter ario miracula. It chances, however, in this instance to be a false miracle; 

 the matter in question being the animalcules which Buffon thought he had dis- 

 covered in the liquids of females, and which do not exist there. § 

 ******** 



For another trait of Linnseus, we may cite the friendly warmth with which 

 he everywhere speaks of Bernard; going so far at one time as to say "that he 

 loves him more than any one else, with the single exception of his wife." 



The true key, indeed, to everything in Linnajus, is to be found in the inexhaust- 

 ible fund of his geniality and goodness of heart. Thus, how touchingly does he 

 speak in his letters of his pupils; calling Kalm, Kalmus noster ; Hasselquist, 

 Jiis dearest disciple. We cannot wonder at the afl^ection which they in turn all 

 vowed to him. They might be said to have constituted a body of apostles 

 intent on carrying his doctrines everywhere, and bringing back to him new 

 subjects of study; with this view, Kalm betook himself to North America, 

 Forskal to Arabia, Hasselquist to Egypt, Toren to the Indies, Osbeck to China, 

 Thunberg to Japan, Sparrman to the South seas, &;c. Through his disciples 

 the world, in some sort, pertained to him. On the other hand, if kindliness is the 

 characteristic of Linnaius, modesty is the quality which attracts us in Bernard.] | 

 Of this Linnseus is especially sensible, and Bernard is the only botanist against 

 whom the former has not launched some shaft of petulant impatience. Well, 

 indeed, might he be considerate of that signal disinterestedness and silence which 

 left him the secure possession ot a supremacy which Bernard alone could have 

 disputed with him. 



* Respecting the whole history of the coral animal see the analysis of the manuscripts of 

 Peyssonnel, which I inserted in the Journal des Savants for 1838. 



t Sec the Memoir of De Candolle, Smithsonian Report for 1859. 



I Linn:x>us had at first observed it only in the Linaria arvensis; it has been observed since 

 in several other plants of different species. 



ij\ See, in the notes of the edition which I have given of Buffon's works, the causes of this 

 error. 



||Nothin<:^, his nephew Laurent tells lis, was more familiar to him than the answer: je ne 

 sais pas (I do not know.) Jean Jacques, who had become an enthusiast in botany, sent to 

 ask of him what method he should follow. "None," replied Bernard ; " let him study plants 

 in the order in which nature offers them to him. It is impossible that a man of such genius 

 should occupy himself with botany and not teach us something." 



