EAY—L INNjE us. 45 



important improvements in classification in 

 works which he published in 1682 and 1686. 

 Ray classified on characters of the flowers 

 and fruits. In 1690 Rivinius made a dispo- 

 sition of plants founded upon the character 

 of the corolla alone. It remained for Jo- 

 seph Pitton de Tournefort, of Paris, to en- 

 large this system of classification. In 1700 

 Tournefort published eleven classes founded 

 upon the shape of the corolla, and for more 

 than fifty years these classes were recognized. 

 This man was an acute observer and an ac- 

 complished botanist. He is commonly re- 

 garded as the greatest botanist prior to Lin- 

 naeus. The names of some of his classes still 

 remain, as the Labiatse, Umbelliferse, Lilia- 

 ceae, Rosaceae. 



Linnaeus is by common consent regarded 

 as the greatest of botanists. He was a 

 Swede, and lived from 1707 till 1778. Lin- 

 naeus entered upon his scientific labors at a 

 time when the knowledge of plants and ani- 

 mals was vague and superficial, and when 

 there were no acceptable methods of classi- 

 fying and arranging either natural objects 

 or the knowledge of them. He entered the 

 field as a reformer. In this capacity he was 

 admirable for his skill, and still more so for 



