THE KNIGHT OF THE POLAR STAR 283 



treasures we possessed, freed them from the dusty 

 wrappings of the monkish scholiasts, and the Abracada- 

 brists, and, what is of far more consequence, sought in 

 each thing the use for which it was created.' l 



The work of Linnaeus, which his rival Haller 2 calls 

 his 'maximum opus et aeternum,' appeared in 1753. It 

 was the ' Species Plant arum,' two volumes octavo, con- 

 taining a description of every known plant ; a descrip- 

 tion independent of any system, as being founded on the 

 essential character of each species. 3 



The two volumes of the ' Species Plantarum ' were 

 completed towards the autumn of 1753. In- the first 

 edition he describes 7,300 species of plants. 4 



c Besides the importance of this work as a complete 

 arrangement and definition, with all necessary indica- 

 tion of synonyms, of every plant of which its author 

 had any satisfactory knowledge, it is ever memorable 

 for the adaptation of specific, or, as they were at first 

 called, trivial names. This contrivance, which Linnaeus 

 first used in his " Pan Suecicus," a dissertation printed 

 in 1749' [a germ unrecognised as yet by himself], 

 ' extended to minerals in his " Museum Tessinianum," 

 and subsequently to all the departments of zoology, 

 has perhaps rendered his works more popular than 

 any one of their merits besides. His specific differ- 

 ences were intended to be used as names ; but their 

 unavoidable length rendering this impracticable, and 



1 Whewell. 2 They were joint kings of science. 



3 The second edition, likewise in two volumes, was printed in 1769. 



4 Diary. 



