INTKODUCTION. XXXVll 



processes. The agitated question was which 

 of these two was to take the first place. 

 On this question the botanical world was 

 divided into factions of Corollists and Fru- 

 .ticists. Tournefort was a corollist. He 

 constructed a system in which the flower 

 was first considered and the fruit second. 

 But these men were the privileged denizens 

 of a charmed world. The initiation into 

 its mysteries was more laborious and con- 

 tingent than those which beset the aspirant 

 to knighthood in the most jealous epoch 

 of chivalry. If to any the path^was easy, 

 it was only because he had the luck to 

 have a living teacher at hand. It is of 

 the essence of science to be equally free, 

 open, and intelligible to all who seek it ; 

 and although the obstructions were not 

 wilful but natural, yet we may justly sa}'' 

 that while they remained the conditions 

 of science were not yet attained. What 

 was wanted was a Nomenclature, a Vo- 

 cabulary, which is in the case of a Classi- 

 ficatory Science as much as to say a 

 Language. 



It was this pressing want that Linnaeus 



