Chap, ii.] Organs from Cesalpino to Linnaeus. 105 



leaves of the third year the calyx, those of the fourth the corolla, 

 those of the fifth the stamens, those of the sixth the pistil. 

 Here we see once more how Linnaeus moves in the sphere of 

 arbitrary assumptions with no thought of exact observation, for 

 this whole theory of prolepsis rests on nothing that can be 

 called a well-ascertained fact. 



Yet a third time we find in Linnaeus the juxtaposition of a 

 superficial view resting on every-day perception, and a more 

 profound and to some extent a philosophical view ; this is the 

 case where he is concerned on the one hand with the dogma 

 of the constancy of species, and on the other hand has to 

 explain the fact of natural relationship and its gradations. 

 Apart from some insignificant verbal explanations, Linnaeus 

 adduced nothing in support of the dogma but the every-day 

 perception of the unchangeableness of species, and to this he 

 held fast to the end of his life ; but it was important to find an 

 explanation of the fact, to which he himself repeatedly drew 

 attention, that genera, orders, and classes do not merely rest on 

 opinion but indicate really existing affinities. His mode of solv- 

 ing the difficulty was a very remarkable one : not only does the 

 scholastic manner of thought appear here again quite unalloyed 

 by modern science, but he grounds his explanation once more 

 on the old a priori notion that the pith is the vital principle in 

 the plant, and also on his own assumption, that in the sexual 

 act the woody substance of the anthers combines with the pith- 

 substance of the pistil. Hugo Mohl has given a clear account 

 of the matter in No. 46 of the ' Botanische Zeitung' for 1870, 

 although neither he nor Wigand nor most of Linnaeus' biogra- 

 phers seem to know, that his theories are all to be traced to 

 Cesalpino. Linnaeus' theory of natural affinities, as he gave it 

 in 1762 in the ' Fundamentum Fructificationis,' and in 1764 in 

 the sixth edition of the ' Genera Plantarum,' is as follows : At 

 the creation of plants (in ipsa creatione) one species was made 

 as the representative of each natural order, and these plants so 

 corresponding to the natural orders were distinct from our 



