288 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



genuine character is a family portraiture and every 

 specific description a miniature. 1 



' The trivial name was expressive, if possible, of 

 some essential distinction of the species, or sometimes 

 of the name of the person by whom the plant was dis- 

 covered, or sometimes of the country to which it 

 appears to be peculiar. He frequently retains the old 

 generic name as the trivial epithet.' 2 



'Trivial names had never been heard of before. 

 Affixing them to all vegetables was like putting a 

 clapper to a bell. Botany acquired new life. Names 

 could now not only be easily remembered, but also 

 spoken and written with ease ; whereas, before, it was 

 necessary to have recourse to definitions. Hence botany 

 acquired an entirely new and natural form.' 3 



It is not by puzzling people that one gives them light. 

 The ignis fatuus bewilders. The Polar Star illumines 

 the way. Ignorance was what Linnaeus fought against, 

 by placing the lantern of fact to light the path, where- 

 by we may avoid stumbling-blocks we cannot remove. 

 ' Everything he wrote was written briefly and nervously. 

 He read the earth, minerals, vegetables, and animals 

 as in a book. He was one of the greatest observers 

 we have had, and therefore to be considered as an 

 author, not as a compiler. Few possess his penetrating 

 genius.' 4 



It is natural that at this time of his life the * Species 

 Plantarum' should have been put forth as the result 



1 Turton, z Pan and Pandora. 3 Turton. 4 Ibid. 



