LINN^US VISITS GARDEN 59 



features are becoming thin. A glass canopy 

 might preserve it. 



So the Garden prospered and obtained 

 European fame, both for its rare plants and 

 skilful management. 



Dr. Linnaeus heard of it, and decided to visit I 

 England and see it, and its fellow Physic Garden | 

 by the Cherwell at Oxford. Linnaeus had' 

 slowly made his way in his own country, and 

 at the time of his visit to Chelsea in 1736, was 

 Assistant to the Professor of Botany at Upsala. 

 With extraordinary industry, and with the gift 

 of simple and terse language, he was engaged in 

 classifying the whole living world, from 

 buffaloes to buttercups. 



In botany, gathering up the threads of work 

 left by Ray and others (who found difficulty, 

 in a crowd of synonyms, of deciding what 

 plants belonged to what names), and keeping 

 as far as he could to the old classical names, 

 Linnaeus gave every plant a name consisting of 

 two words instead of a long descriptive sen- 

 tence. The first word was the surname of its 

 family, the second word indicated the species, 

 and he classified all flowering plants according 

 to resemblances in their stamens and carpels. 

 He knew that his work was not final, 

 but he brought order out of chaos, and made 

 a great index to the whole vegetable world, 

 with names so well chosen that most of them 

 are in use at the present day. 



But the old botanists were not ready for the 

 new teaching. Linnaeus came to London with 

 a cordial letter of introduction to Sir Hans 

 Sloane from Dr. Boerhaave, a well-known 



