BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE. 47 



saw wliat confusion and unpleasantness must 

 come from a multiplication of such names. 

 A very small part of the plants of the world, 

 or even of Europe, were then described. 

 Linnaeus adopted the method of making the 

 name of each plant consist of two words, 

 one a substantive and a generic name, the 

 other an adjective and a specific name. 

 Thus the red maple became in botanical lan- 

 guage Acer rubrum. The adoption of this 

 binomial nomenclature, as it is called, meant 

 more than simple convenience to the bota- 

 nist: it gave a fixedness to genera and to 

 species. The genera of plants were but 

 vaguely defined before this time. We might 

 illustrate a vaguely defined genus by sup- 

 posing that the term maple might include 

 ashes or other trees beside the true maples, 

 or that one person might apply the name to 

 one set of plants, and another person to a 

 different set. The idea of genus is an im- 

 portant one. This idea is supposed to have 

 originated with Conrad Gessner, an obscure 

 German, who died in 1565 ; at least most 

 of the merit of the invention is to be as- 

 cribed to him. The strictly scientific defini- 

 tion and use of the genus began with Tour- 

 nefort, however. A more particular mention 



