184 The Evolution of Botany. 



upon the stamens and pistils only, was a sure and convenient 

 one, and soon enjoyed widespread use among botanists and 

 naturalists. Linnaaus's greater merit, though, and because of 

 which he was called " the reformer of natural history," was 

 in establishing fixed rules regarding the scientific character- 

 istics of the species and genera, and the correct terminology 

 for these, which have yet to-day their value. 



Among the opposers of the Linnaaan system were such 

 botanists as Ludwig, Gleditsch, Adanson, and Jussieu, none 

 of whom, however, had before that a better classification 

 to present. ' Linnaeus himself looked upon his system as 

 very imperfect, and he knew that to invent a natural sys- 

 tem of some kind would be a problem for future botanists. 

 The object of his artificial system was merely to furnish a 

 simple and convenient method for finding out the habitat 

 and name of a plant. He compared his system to a diction- 

 ary, as it distributed plants according to the number of 

 stamens and pistils, just as in a dictionary words are ar- 

 ranged according to their first letters. 



Many of Linnaeus's scholars made it their duty to study 

 the floras of foreign lands as well as that of their own, and 

 Hasselquist, Forskal, Lofling, Pallas, Brown, Jacquin, Com- 

 merson, Burman, Aublet, Scopoli, Pollich, Leers, Haller, 

 and Gerard were especially successful in their studies, about 

 which they wrote profusely. 



Lightfoot investigated the flora of Scotland, Oder and 

 Muller that of Denmark, Gunerus of Norway, Hudson of 

 England, Martinez of Spain, Sequire of Italy, etc., and all 

 contributed largely to the knowledge of the floras of the re- 

 spective countries. 



In Linnaeus's time the lower orders of plants the fungi, 

 mushrooms, toadstools, mold, mildew, algas, seaweeds, etc., 

 and mosses received detailed attention by Micheli, Scheuch- 

 zer, and Dillenius, who worked extensively in this direction. 

 Dillenius examined most minutely the mosses, and elabo- 

 rated much upon the little work done theretofore by English 

 botanists, who were the only ones who had worked in that 

 field at all. 



Bauhin's Pinax register, mentioned before, contained only 

 50 species, so little attention had been given to the mosses. 

 Kay's synopsis (1690) contained 80 species, and in 1696 the 

 number had replied 170. Dillenius was the first, however, 

 who considered and studied the generic characteristics of 

 these plants, and who distinguished them from the fungi. 



