154 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



matters of classification, the rule of Linnaeus was 

 supreme, and any effort to recast his artificial 

 groupings was looked at as heretical in the ex- 

 treme. The attempt at a natural classification of 

 plants, which has made the fame of Jussieu, had 

 the full sympathy of Rafinesque ; but to his Ameri- 

 can contemporaries such work could lead only to 

 confusion. Then, again, in some few of its phases, 

 Rafinesque anticipated the modern doctrine of the 

 origin of species. That the related species of such 

 genera as Rosa, Qiierciis, Trifoliiim, have had a 

 common origin. — a view the correctness of which 

 no well-informed botanist of our day can possibly 

 doubt, — Rafinesque then maintained against the 

 combined indignation and disgust of all his fellow- 

 workers. His writings on these subjects read bet- 

 ter to-day than when, forty-five years ago, they 

 were sharply reviewed by one of our then young 

 and promising botanists. Dr. Asa Gray. 



But the botanists had good reason to complain 

 of the application of Rafinesque's theories of evo- 

 lution. To him, the production of a new species 

 was a rapid process, — a hundred years was time 

 enough, — and when he saw the tendency in di- 

 verging varieties toward the formation of new 

 species, he was eager to anticipate Nature (and 

 his fellow-botanists as well), and give it a new 

 name. He became a monomaniac on the subject 

 of new species. He was uncontrolled in this 

 matter by the influence of other writers, — that 

 incredulous conservatism as to another's discov- 

 eries which furnishes a salutary balance to enthu- 

 siastic workers. Before his death so much had 



