XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 



Bauhin's approved name. The botanical 

 world felt a thrill of relief run through 

 its limbs, and was ready to resign itself 

 to repose as if all its task were done 

 and labour ended. But it was only the 

 end of one stage and the beginning of 

 another. The Pinax is the summary and 

 terminus of the middle age in Botany. It 

 has permanence as a landmark, and as the 

 massive monument of a closing era. It is 

 conspicuous as the tomb of Synonymy and 

 the quarry of the Systematist l . 



There was still work to do. Botany 

 had now a System ; but it was one to create 

 a new sense of need. While it served a 

 present convenience, it awoke new curiosity 

 and enquiry. Its inequalities set sharply 

 forth the difference between arbitrary and 

 natural classification. And they even 

 marred the utility of the book, for it 

 lacked a core it was a system of patch- 

 work, without consistency or central prin- 

 ciple of unity. There was still work to 

 do : for though they had a System, it was 

 mechanical and inorganic. 



1 See Canon 26 of Linnaeus, below. 



