98 Artificial Systems and Terminology of [BOOK i. 



liable to disease and death ; they have also a power of move- 

 ment, a natural appetency (propulsio), an anatomy, and an 

 organic structure (organismus). Simple explanations are given 

 of these words, but they prove nothing about the matter. He 

 then expounds the whole theory of sexuality, which is made to 

 rest entirely on scholastic arguments, and in doing this he spins 

 out to excessive length the parallel which he draws between 

 the conditions of sexuality in animals and plants. It is mani- 

 festly this chapter of the ' Philosophia Botanica,' together with 

 the treatise ' Sponsalia Plantarum,' which led the adherents of 

 Linnaeus, who were ignorant of the older literature of the 

 subject and were much impressed by his scholastic dexterity, to 

 celebrate him as the founder of the sexual theory of plants ; 

 whereas a more careful study of history shows incontrovertibly 

 that Linnaeus helped in this way to disseminate the doctrine, 

 but did absolutely nothing to establish it. 



The writings of Linnaeus which we have hitherto examined 

 are occupied with the nature of plants, and of this he knew 

 nothing more than he gathered from the investigations and 

 reflections of his predecessors ; and it is here especially that 

 his peculiar scholasticism is exhibited in contrast with the facts 

 obtained by induction which he communicated to his readers. 

 But the strong side of his intellect appears with splendid effect in 

 the succeeding chapters of the ' Philosophia,' which treat of the 

 principles of systematic botany ; here, where he has no longer 

 to establish facts, but to arrange ideas, to dispose and sum- 

 marise, we find Linnaeus thoroughly in his element. 



The groundwork of botanical science, he begins, is twofold, 

 classification and naming. The constituting of classes, orders, 

 and genera he calls theoretical classification ; the constituting 

 of species and varieties is practical classification. The work of 

 classification carried out by Cesalpino, Morison, Tournefort, 

 and others leads to the establishing of a system ; the mere 

 practice of describing species may be carried on by those who 

 know nothing of systematic botany. These expressions of 



