EPOCHS IN BIOLOGICAL HISTORY 



391 



what indefinitely, and his chief contribution was to make the 

 word more concrete by applying it solely to groups of similar 

 individuals which seem to exhibit constant characters from 

 generation to generation. This paved the way for the great 

 taxonomist, Linnaeus. 



Linnaeus was first and foremost a botanist who gave plant 

 students at once a practical classification of Flowering Plants, 



FIG. 201. Carolus Linnaeus. 



based chiefly on the number and arrangement of the stamens ; 

 and at the same time insisted on brief descriptions and the 

 scheme of giving each kind of organism a name of two words, 

 generic and specific, thereby establishing the system of 

 BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE. Linnaeus' success with botani- 

 cal taxonomy led him to extend the principles to animals and 

 even to the so-called mineral kingdom: the latter showing 

 at a glance his lack of appreciation of any genetic relation- 

 ship between species. Although the terms genus and species 

 to Linnaeus expressed a transcendental affinity, since he 



