CAROLUS LINNAEUS 65 



to say that during more than twenty years 

 past I have steadily and unwaveringly been 

 of the opinion that to attempt to legislate 

 upon nomenclature is but futility, if not 

 folly, until every participant in every nomen- 

 clatorial conclave shall have familiarized him- 

 self with all that Linnaeus said, and said with 

 such commanding authority, upon this sub- 

 ject. So, then, the discussion of Linnaeus 

 as nomenclator, at least in my understanding 

 and appreciation of him, could not alone be 

 done within the time allotted us to-night. 

 To omit it altogether was imperative. 



The same limitations have precluded my 

 calling attention even briefly to Linnaeus as 

 evolutionist, as ecologist, as medical botanist, 

 or as one who contributed much to the advance- 

 ment of what is now commonly spoken of as 

 applied botany in general. 



Of the real merits of Linnaeus they know 

 little who, observing that his classes and 

 orders are become obsolete, and that neither 

 his idea of a genus is that of more recent 

 botany, nor his conception of a species, con- 

 clude that his figure must by and by grow dim 

 on the horizon of botanical history. I say, 

 they who know little of his real merits may 

 give place to such forebodings. But they 

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