36 HAECKEL 



of his Latin and Greek. When the new Dar- 

 winian zoology and botany needed several hundred 

 new Latin-Greek technical terms in after-years, he 

 showed himself to be an inventor of the first rank 

 in this department. No other scientist has made 

 anything like the same adroit use of the classic 

 vocabulary for the purposes of the new system and 

 created a new terminology for the entirely new 

 science. His creations were certainly ingenious, 

 and not without grace at times ; in other cases, as 

 was almost inevitable, they were less pleasing. 

 And to this we must add thousands of names of 

 new species which he had to coin, as the discoverer 

 of radiolaria, medusae, sponges, &c. In the radio- 

 laria alone he has formed and published the names 

 of more than 3,500 new species. I fancy that even 

 the oldest pastor of the most fertile congregation 

 has never conducted so many christenings. In 

 each case it was necessary to impose two names, 

 the generic and specific. We may well expect to 

 find a few that will not last, but the reader is 

 amazed at the philological creative power of this 

 busy godfather and the inexhaustibility of his 

 vocabulary; they show far more than the usual 

 training in humanities. 



His real predilection was pronounced enough in 

 those early years. It was what the classical peda- 

 gogue would regard as child's play and waste of time 

 — zoology and botany. A large double window in 

 his parents' house was fitted up as a conservatory, 

 and plants were gathered very zealously. His love 

 of botany was so great that any one would have 



