56 CAROLUS LINN^US 



of the remaining 80 years of the eighteenth 

 century, of the whole of the nineteenth, and 

 is thus far that of the twentieth. In other 

 phrase, that doctrine of the organization and 

 the functions of the flower which Vaillant set 

 forth as new in the year 1717, has held undis- 

 puted sway, without significant augmentation 

 or amendment, for now 190 years. Every 

 botanist will readily perceive that this is a 

 very rare encomium. Every one will realize 

 that to very few can it have been given to 

 lay down the fundamentals of plant taxonomy. 

 Those fundamentals, as we have all been 

 taught, and as our forefathers were taught, 

 are really only two, namely, carpology and 

 anthology. Csesalpino in the year 1583 estab- 

 lished the true carpology. Vaillant in 1717, 

 the true anthology. These were the two 

 great things to be done before there could 

 be a true and philosophic system of botanical 

 classification. Now which of these two names 

 is the greater in scientific botany may be open 

 to learned dispute; but so long as the accepted 

 foundations of botany remain in place, suc- 

 cessful competitors for their exalted rank 

 there can be none. 



Five years after having published this mas- 

 terpiece of plant organography Vaillant died. 



