CAROLUS LINN^US 27 



in his hands Valentini's key to the twenty- 

 two Tournefortian classes of plants, the young 

 Linnaeus bent his energies in botany to ascer- 

 taining by their organographic marks to 

 what one of the classes of Tournefort each 

 plant that he found belonged. It was a 

 day that completely and most happily revo- 

 lutionized this brilliant youth's conception 

 of the plant world, as well as his method of 

 investigating it. It was in fact the day when 

 Linnaeus, according to his own testimony 

 about it, first began to be a botanist; and 

 thence-forward the illustrious Parisian had 

 never a more zealous disciple, until after some 

 years the ardent disciple began, and in some 

 respects deservingly, to supersede the master. 

 It is hardly to the praise of Linnseus that in 

 after life, when at the height of his own re- 

 splendent fame he was dedicating a genus 

 of plants to each of his chief benefactors of 

 earlier days, he forgot good Dr. Rothman. 

 This man had been the first, and perhaps the 

 most important of them all, even from the 

 viewpoint of botanical training. It was cer- 

 tainly he who, as far as one can see, saved 

 the boy Linnaaus from oblivion when his 

 own father had resolved to apprentice him to 

 a cabinet-maker or tailor. It was he who, 



