1 64 SCIENCE SKETCHES, 



matters of classification, the rule of Linnaeus was 

 supreme, and any effort to recast his artificial 

 groupings was looked at as heretical in the ex- 

 treme. The attempt at a natural classification of 

 plants, which has made the fame of Jussieu, had 

 the full sympathy of Rafinesque ; but to his Ameri- 

 can contemporaries such work could lead only to 

 confusion. Then, again, in some few of its phases, 

 Rafinesque anticipated the mode/n doctrine of the 

 origin of species. That the related species of such 

 genera as Rosa, Quercus, Trifolium, have had a 

 common origin. a view the correctness of which 

 no well-informed botanist of out day can possibly 

 doubt, Rafinesque then maintained against the 

 combined indignation and disgust of all his fellow- 

 workers. His writings on these subjects read bet- 

 ter to-day than when, forty-fjye years ago, they 

 were sharply reviewed by one :of our then young 

 and promising botanists, Dr. A st^ Gray. 



But the botanists had good reason to complain 

 of the application of Rafinesque's theories of evo- 

 lution. To him, the production of a new species 

 was a rapid process, a hundred years was time 

 enough, and when he saw the tendency in di- 

 verging varieties toward the formation of new 

 species, he was eager to anticipate Nature (and 

 his fellow-botanists as well), and give it a new 

 name. He became a monomaniac on the subject 

 of new species. He was uncontrolled in this 

 matter by the influence of other writers, that 

 incredulous conservatism as to another's discov- 

 eries which furnishes a salutary balance to enthu- 

 siastic workers. Before his death so much had 



