80 Artificial Systems and Terminology of Organs [BOOK i. 



natural sciences which are distinguished by the term descriptive, 

 and it is usual to say that a new epoch in the history of our 

 science begins with him, as a new astronomy began with 

 Copernicus, and new physics with Galileo. This conception 

 of Linnaeus' historical position, as far at least as his chief 

 subject, botany, is concerned, can only be entertained by one 

 who is not acquainted with the works of Cesalpino, Jung, Ray, 

 and Bachmann, or who disregards the numerous quotations 

 from them in Linnaeus' theoretical writings. On the contrary, 

 Linnaeus is pre-eminently the last link in the chain of develop- 

 ment represented by the above-named writers ; the field of 

 view and the ideas of Linnaeus are substantially the same as 

 theirs ; he shares with them in the fundamental errors of the 

 time, and indeed essentially contributed to transmit them to 

 the iQth century. But to maintain that Linnaeus marks not 

 the beginning of a new epoch, but the conclusion of an old 

 one, does not at all imply that his labours had no influence 

 upon the time that followed him. Linnaeus stands in the same 

 relation to the systematists of the period we are considering 

 that Kaspar Bauhin does to the botanists of the i6th century ; 

 as Bauhin gathered up all that was serviceable in his predeces- 

 sors, Cesalpino only excepted, while the botanists of our second 

 period drew again from him, though they set out from other 

 points of view than his ; so Linnaeus adopted all that the 

 systematists of the i7th century had built upon the foundation 

 of Cesalpino's ideas^ gave it unity and fashioned it into a system 

 without .introducing into it anything that was fundamentally 

 and essentially new ; all that had been developed in systematic 

 botany from Cesalpino to Tournefort culminated in him, and 

 the results, which he put together in a very original form and 

 with the power of a master, were no more unfruitful for the 

 further development of botany than the contents of Kaspar 

 Bauhin's works for the successors of Cesalpino. 



Whoever carefully compares the works of Cesalpino, Jung, 

 Morison, Ray, Bachmann, and Tournefort with Linnaeus, 



