WEXIO 49 



proper place, and even to doubt the situation of many 

 species whose characters had not been properly ascer- 

 tained. 'Rothman gave his pupil a private course of 

 instruction in physiology on the Boerhaavian principles, 

 that he might make more rapid progress. He was 

 rewarded by his success/ l In both studies Carl made 

 considerable proficiency. 



Tournefort, however, gave him the first view of the 

 conveniencies of arrangement and the beauty of system, 

 and was doubtless the foundation-stone of his own 

 later structure. In writing the life of an eminent man 

 it is customary to speak first of his ancestors, of his 

 parents being poor and honest, and so forth ; his mental 

 ancestry is of even more importance to his biographer. 

 Linnaeus's immediate ancestor, metaphysically, was 

 Tournefort. His valuable book 2 was not only illus- 

 trated, but elucidated, by the insertion of a figure of a 

 flower and a fruit of each genus. Carl saw nature by 

 this fine strong light, as modern artists see the external 

 movements of nature by the teaching of Ruskin. 

 Little did Rothman think he was forming the mould of 

 a greater botanist than Tournefort. 



Tournefort, who was born in 1656, died in 1708 the 

 very year after Linnaeus was born aged only fifty- 

 two. f He might have been alive now,' thought Carl 

 regretfully as he turned over the book that was ablaze 

 with light for him, * and I would have walked barefoot 3 



1 Pulteney. 2 Institutiones Rei Herbaria, Paris, 1700. 



Letter to Haller. 



VOL. I. E 



