INTRODUCTION. XXXVU 



processes. The agitated question was which 

 of these two was to take the first place. 

 On this question the botanical world was 

 divided into factions of Corollists and Fru- 

 ticists. Tournefort was a corollist. He 

 constructed a system in which the flower 

 was first considered and the fruit second. 

 But these men were the privileged denizens 

 of a charmed world. The initiation into 

 its mysteries was more laborious and con- 

 tingent than those which beset the aspirant 

 to knighthood in the most jealous epoch 

 of chivalry. If to any the path was easy, 

 it was only because he had the luck to 

 have a living teacher at hand. It is of 

 the essence of science to be equally free, 

 open, and intelligible to all who seek it ; 

 and although the obstructions were not 

 wilful but natural, yet we may justly say 

 that while they remained the conditions 

 of science were not yet attained. "What 

 was wanted was a Nomenclature, a Vo- 

 cabulary, which is in the case of a Classi- 

 ficatory Science as much as to say a 

 Language. 



It was this pressing want that Linnasus 



