210 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. FT. in. 



and many people in the last century were led to study 

 zoology and botany by the simplicity of the classifications 

 of Linnaeus. 



The other useful point in Linnasus's system was the 

 accurate and precise terms he invented for describing plants. 

 Before his time naturalists used any words which suited 

 them, and as different people have often very different ideas 

 as to what is meant by long or short, round or pointed, etc., 

 the descriptions were often of very little value. But 

 Linnaeus could not work out his system without using very 

 clear terms and explaining beforehand what he meant by 

 them; and as his nomenclature, or system of names, was soon 

 followed in other countries, botanists in all parts of the 

 world were able to recognise at once what was meant by the 

 description of any particular plant. The same advantage 

 arose out of his classification of animals, and the care with 

 which he traced out their chief characters. I wish I could 

 \ have given you some idea of this system, which was fully 

 I explained in the * Systema Naturae,' completed in 1768. But 

 when you remember that Linnaeus classified minutely the 

 whole of the animals and plants known in the world, you 

 will perceive that it would be necessary to write a separate 

 book to make it intelligible. If you can only remember 

 that he did build up this artificial system, and that he was 

 the first to give specific names to plants and animals 

 and to create an accurate nomenclature all over the 

 world, you will, I think, have learnt as much as you need 

 know at present about the work of the great Swedish 

 naturalist. 



Linnaeus was not a vigorous old man. The hard 

 struggles of his youth and the immense work of his after- 

 life had worn him out, and at fifty-six he was obliged to ask 

 the King of Sweden to let his son lecture sometimes in his 



