CHAP, ii.] Organs from Ccsalpino to Linnaeus. 91 



physiologists in Linnaeus' sense. The second class of system- 

 atists, the systematists proper, he distinguishes into orthodox 

 and heterodox, the former taking the grounds of division 

 exclusively from the organs of fructification, while the latter 

 use other marks as well. In this manner Linnaeus treats 

 every subject of which he has to speak, and wherever he can 

 in short, numbered sentences, which look like descriptions of 

 genera and species. His mind and character were fully formed 

 in 1736 when he wrote his ' Fundamenta,' and he preserved his 

 peculiarities of style from that time forward ; we find the same 

 modes of expression in the ' Nemesis Divina,' a treatise 01^ 

 religion and morals addressed as a legacy to his son. Where 

 these peculiarities of manner and expression are suitable they 

 make a favourable impression on the reader, as for instance in 

 the short accounts he gives of the various systems in the 

 ' Classes Plantarum,' a work in which Linnaeus was quite in 

 his element ; there he traces with a fine instinct the guiding 

 principles of each system, pronounces upon its merits and 

 defects, and sets it before the reader in numbered sentences 

 of epigrammatic brevity. This manner is strictly adhered to 

 in the ' Philosophia ' also, and it has certainly helped not 

 a little to withdraw the attention of his reader from his many 

 fallacies in argument, especially his oft-recurring reasonings in 

 a circle. 



This remarkable combination of an unscientific philosophy 

 with mastery over the classification of things and conceptions, 

 this mixture of consistency in carrying out his scholastic prin- 

 ciples with gross inaccuracies of thought, impart to his style an 

 originality, which is rendered still more striking by the native 

 freshness and directness, and not unfrequently by the poetic 

 feeling, which animate his periods. 



In any attempt to estimate the advance which the science 

 owes to the labours of Linnaeus, the chief prominence must be 

 assigned to two points ; first to his success in carrying out 

 the binary nomenclature in connection with the careful and 



