HISTORY OF BOTANY. 317 



to its comparative merit. All preceding systems were immedi- 

 ately laid aside, and the classification of Linnaeus was receiv- 

 ed with scarcely a dissenting voice. What this system was, 

 you have not now to learn, since it has been the basis of your 

 botanical studies. Linnaeus extended the principles of his 

 classification to the animal and mineral kingdoms ; in the lan- 

 guage of an eminent botanist,* " His magic pen turned the 

 wilds of Lapland into fairy fields, and the animals of Sweden 

 came to be classed by him as they went to Adam in the garden 

 of Eden to receive each his particular name." 



LECTURE XLVI. 



History of Botany from the time of Linnaus to the present. 



was born in 1707 ; his father was a clergyman, 

 and had designed his son for the same sacred office ; but 

 seeing him leave his studies to gather flowers, he inferred 

 that he possessed a weak and trifling mind, unfit for close in- 

 vestigation ; and was about to put him to a mechanical em- 

 ployment, when some discerning persons perceiving in his 

 devotion to the works of nature, the germ of a great and 

 lofty mind, placed him in a situation favourable to the de- . 

 velopement of his peculiar talents, where he .was allowed 

 without restraint, to study the book of nature, " This elder 

 Scripture, writ by God's own hand." 



Linnaeus formed anew the language of botanical science ; 

 every organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave 

 it an appropriate name ; every important modification was de- 

 signated by a particular term. Thus comparisons became 

 easy, and confusion was avoided. The characters of plants 

 appeared in a new light. Each species took, besides the 

 name of the genus to which it belonged^ a specific name 

 which recalled some peculiarity distinctive of the species. 

 Before that time the species, instead of being thus designated, 

 required in some cases a whole sentence to express the name. 



But what most tended to render the works of Linnaeus 

 popular, was his artificial system, in which he had made the 

 stamens and pistils subservient to a most simple and clear 

 arrangement ; he remarked the different insertion of the 

 stamens; their union by means of their filaments had been 



* Sir James E. Smith. 



Birth of Linnaeus, &c. What were the improvements made by Linnaeus ?- 

 What most rendered his works popular ? 

 27* 



