LINNEAN CLASSIFICATION 81 



Linnaeus by heart, and liked to look on his work 

 as final. This devotion to a great leader 

 arrested the progress of botany in England. 



Linnaeus had no such belief in the finality 

 of his system, and (to use the wise words of 

 Professor Patrick Geddes) " the blame of its 

 obstinate and bigoted retention for well-nigh 

 two generations after Linnaeus and the elder 

 de Jussieu had departed, must thus, as in so 

 many other historic cases, be ascribed, not to 

 the purpose of the master, but to the blind and 

 indiscriminating reverence of his disciples in 

 adhering to the letter of his writings, at the 

 expense of their general aim and spirit." 



At the Physic Garden, Lindley set to work 

 on improvements with energy lectured to 

 students at the Garden at half-past eight on 

 summer mornings, appealed to Apothecaries' 

 Hall to allow an arrangement of plants on the 

 new system, and encountered inevitable 

 opposition from the old Linnean curator. 



The curator, Anderson, died in 1846, aged 

 eighty. He had been appointed on Sir Joseph 

 Banks' recommendation in 1814. His rough 

 exterior held a good heart. He had done many 

 kind acts, and it was found after his death that 

 a diamond ring that he prized, given him years 

 before by the Emperor of Russia, had been 

 pledged to help a poor friend. 



On Lindley 's recommendation, Robert 

 Fortune was made curator in Anderson's 

 place. Fortune had just returned from an 

 adventurous collecting tour in China, where 

 he had travelled as a Chinaman. He had sent 

 home many new plants Yellow Jasmine, For- 

 F 



