The Transiimtation Theory Before Darwin. 19 



were regarded as the real units of the system. This is 

 also obvious from the meaning of the expression noinen 

 specificiim which was in use at that time. Tournefort 

 and his contemporaries wrote after the generic name a 

 short diagnosis each time, in order to distinguish the 

 single species from one another. So long as only a few 

 species were known in each genus, one character sufficed. 

 But as the number of species increased more characters 

 became necessary, until finally many species could only 

 be denoted by a description which occupied several lines. 

 A circumlocution of this kind we now call a diagnosis; 

 then it was called a nomen specificimi and had to be 

 written out every time one wanted to refer to a particular 

 species. 



LiNNAEU's substituted his binary nomenclature for 

 these cumbersome noniina specifica^ and, in order to 

 give his species the necessary importance he raised them 

 to the rank of the units of the system. He advanced 

 the proposition Species tot numeramns, qiiod diversae 

 formae in principio sunt creatae^ and thus laid the foun- 

 dation of the conception of species that is recognized 

 to-day. And just as it had been supposed up to that 

 time that species arose from genera by natural means, 

 so, according to Linnaeus, smaller types had arisen 

 from the species.^ But in order to insure as far as pos- 

 sible the supernatural dignity of his species Linnaeus 

 forbade his students to study the smaller types : Varie- 

 tates lez'issinias non curat botanicus, ran the command."* 



LiNNAEUs's species were aggregate species and not 



^ Philosophia Botanica, No. 257, p. 207. 



' Ibid., No. 157, p. 103. 



^ "Varietates sunt plantae eiusdem specie!, mutatae a caiissa qiia- 

 CLinque occasionali," Ibid., No. 306, p. 243 ; No. 158, p. 104. 



* Ibid., No. 310. 



