ANECDOTES OF LINNJGUS. Xlll 



* The number of his new and important observa- 

 tions in botany is very great. They are for the 

 most part to be found in the collection of his aca- 

 demical dissertations. He also took uncommon 

 pains to finish his Ordines Natural 'es, or the natural 

 affinity which subsists among the plants ; but not- 

 withstanding the great extent of his exertions, those 

 productions only remained fragments, and many 

 plants still are left to which he could not assign a 

 place in their natural order. I wished at the same 

 time to get better acquainted with the distinctive 

 marks of his natural classes and with his observa- 

 tions upon them. He subjoined them finally, 

 though with too much laconism, to the last edition 

 of his Genera Plantarum, which was the result of 

 some lectures he gave us in summer, in the country, 

 upon the Natural Orders. 



" These are his merits in botany, to which he 

 gave a quite new appearance, and enriched with 

 many valuable remarks. ' If we make conjecture 

 of the value of the Linnaean method,' says the cele- 

 brated Hill in his Vegetable System, ' it will livt, 

 even when a natural method shall be found, as 

 long as there is science.' 



" Linnaeus manifested the same spirit of syste- 

 matical order in the animal reign. He found it a 

 real chaos, in which the infinite number of animals 

 were confounded without characteristic distinction 

 and without order. There had hardly been any 

 regular and fixed classes introduced, at least not 



