228 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



him who should come forward to attempt the work of reform 

 Charles Von Linnaius^ an inhabitant of Sweden, suddenly 

 emierging from obscurity, offered to the world a system of Bot- 

 cmy so far sujperior to all others^ as to leave no room for dis])ute 

 as to its comparative merit. All preceding systems were im- 

 mediately laid aside, and the classification of Linnseus was re- 

 ceived with scarcely a dissenting voice. Linnseus extended 

 the 23rinciples of his classification to the animal and mineral 

 kingdom ; in the language of an eminent botanist,* " His magic 

 pen turned the wilds of Laj)land into fairy fields, and the an- 

 imals of Sweden came to be classed by him as they went to 

 Adam in the garden of Eden to receive each his particular 

 name." 



3 5 Jr. Linnseus was born in 1707 ; his father was a clergyman, 

 and had designed his son for the same sacred ofiice ; but seeing 

 him leave his studies to gather flowers, he inferred that he 

 possessed a weak and trifling mind, unfit for close investiga- 

 tion, and was about to put him to a mechanical employment, 

 when some discerning persons, perceiving in his devotion to the 

 works of nature the germ of a great and lofty mind, placed him 

 in a situation favorable to the development of his peculiar tal- 

 ents, where he was allowed, without restraint, to study the 

 book of nature, 



" This elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand.'' 



Limuuis formed anew the language of botanical science; 

 every organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave it 

 an appropriate name ; every important modification was desig 

 nated by a particular term. Thus comparisons became easy, 

 and confusion was avoided. The characters of plants appeared 

 in a new light. Each sj^ecies took, besides the name of the 

 genus to which it belonged, a specific name, which recalled 

 some peculiarity distinctive of the species. Before that time, 

 the species, instead of being thus designated, required in some 

 cases a whole sentence to express the name. But what most 

 tended to render the works of Linnteus popular, was his arti- 

 ficial system, in which he had made the stamens and pistils sub- 

 servient to a most simple and clear arrangement ; he remarked 

 the different insertion of the stamens ; their union hy means of 

 their filaments had heen hefore ohserved^ hut he employed them in 

 a manner entirely original. This " Northern Light ^"^ as he has 

 sometimes been termed, contributed to the progress of physiol- 

 ogy, both by his own discoveries, and by improving upon the 

 suggestions of those who had gone before him. In the detail? 



* Sir James E. Smith. 



354. Biith of Linnseus, &c. — What were the improvements made bj- Linnaeus? — What most render* 

 nd his works popular ? — How did he contribute to the progress of physiology, &c. ? 



