ANECDOTES OP LINN-ffiUS. xi 



spite of all attacks, his name will likewise be handed 

 down in this science to the latest posterity. 



" The vegetable reign possessed the greatest 

 charms for Linnaeus ; he bestowed upon it the best 

 share of his time and abilities. "When he first ap- 

 peared in the field of science in 1732, Tournefort's 

 system of botany derived from the structure of the 

 inward cover of the flower, was every where popular 

 and universally accepted. But during the latter 

 part of its most flourishing epoch, a kind of bar- 

 barism was perceived in that system. A great num- 

 ber of new plants having been discovered, it so 

 happened that the characters of the inward cover of 

 the flower proved insufficient to distinguish- one 

 from another with plainness and regularity. Bota- 

 nists began, therefore, to have recourse to the out- 

 ward appearance, and to copperplates, not without 

 prejudice to the certainty of the real system. 



" Linnaeus soon perceived the error and its real 

 foundation, in the want of sufficient and solid cha- 

 racters, which the inward cover of the flower could 

 never have procured. He sought, therefore, a safer 

 basis for his system, and took at first the outward 

 cover of the flower to effect his purpose. But he 

 found it equally insufficient. He ultimately exa- 

 mined the sex of the plants, which had in some 

 measure been already known before him, though 

 never used as a system. Upon these inquiries he 

 built his sexual system, which soon met with uni- 

 versal approbation and spread itself throughout Eu- 



