CAROLUS LINNAEUS 59 



of Class V. No other system of plant classifi- 

 cation ever invented made the beginnings of 

 botany so easy; no other ever was so immensely 

 popular. But what is much more to the 

 credit of the Linnsean classes and orders than 

 the popular applause with which they once 

 were hailed is the fact that the determination 

 of plants under them necessitated close in- 

 spection of all, even the minutest and obscur- 

 est parts of every floral structure; trusting 

 that in these minute, obscure and hitherto 

 neglected organs there would be found some 

 of the very best indexes of affinity. This line 

 of investigation, so important to all taxonomy, 

 Linnaeus was the very first to carry into prac- 

 tice and make universal. It will be difficult 

 to bring the average botanist of to-day to a 

 realization of how great an epoch in botany 

 Linnaeus created when he began examining 

 the stamens of every plant, with the purpose 

 of ascertaining into what one of his 24 pro- 

 posed classes of flowering plants each generic 

 type must fall. And though it be true that 

 the classes and orders of Linnaeus fell into 

 disuse three-quarters of a century ago, it is 

 true to-day that every botanist, from the mere 

 beginner in taxonomy to the most accomplished 

 master of it, if he have a new and unknown 



