LINNAEUS. 



tural history arid occonomy ; a circum- 

 stance by which he is distinguished above 

 all other naturalists, and which has re- 

 dounded equally to his own glory, and to 

 the public advantage. The travels of 

 Kalm, of Osbeck, of Hasselquist, of Lo- 

 tting, were the fruits of his zeal in this 

 point. To Linnaeus may also be ascribed 

 tiiat curious collection of treatises, which, 

 under the name of ' Amaenitates Aca- 

 demics," began to be published in the 

 year 1749, and were continued to a num- 

 ber of volumes. They are academical 

 theses, held under Linnaeus in his profes- 

 sional capacity, and may be regarded as 

 containing his own doctrines and opinions 

 on most of the points discussed. 



The work of Linnaeus, which Halter 

 terms his " Maximus Opus et jEternum," 

 appeared in 1753. It was the " Species 

 Fluntarum," in two volumes, 8vo. con- 

 taining a description of every known plant, 

 arranged according to his sexual system. 

 The description, however, is independent 

 of any system, as being founded on the 

 essential character of each species, with 

 a further reference to the generic descrip- 

 tion given in the " Genera Plantarum." 

 In this publication Linnaeus first intmduc- 

 ed his admirable invention of trivial names, 

 or epithets taken from the most prominent 

 specific mark of the subject, or from 

 some other characteristic circumstance. 

 The specific descriptions are given in the 

 precise form of a definition, with a great 

 variety of terms of his own invention, 

 simple and compound, forming, as it were, 

 a new botanical language. It' in these 

 terms he has not aimed at a classical pu- 

 rity, he has in general formed them upon 

 correct analogy ; and it cannot be denied 

 that they are excellently adapted for their 

 purpose. In the same year he was creat- 

 ed by the king a Knight of the Polar Star, 

 an honour which had never before been 

 conferred on a literary character. His 

 elevation to the rank of nobility, by the 

 king's sign manual, took place eight 

 years after, in 1761, but antedated 1757, 

 and from that time he wrote his name C. 

 Von Linne. In the mean time honours of 

 a literary kind had been accumulating 

 upon him from foreign countries. Besides 

 many learned societies of inferior rank, he 

 was aggregated to the Imperial Acade- 

 my, to the Societies of Berlin, London, 

 and to the Academy, and finally was no- 

 minated one of the eight foreign members 

 of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, being 

 the first Swede that had obtained that 

 distinction. The remote city of TJpsal 



VOL. TV. 



was visited by many strangers, attract- 

 ed by his reputation, which extended 

 throughout Europe, and the number of 

 students in its university was doubled. 

 His correspondence included almost all 

 the eminent cultivators of natural history ; 

 and he was continually receiving from all 

 parts tributes of books, plants, and spe- 

 cimens, which enabled him to complete 

 his vast plan of carrying a new systema- 

 tic arrangement through every depart- 

 ment of nature. This he effected by the 

 completion of his great work, " Systema 

 Naturae," which had grown in successive 

 editions from a few tables to two, and 

 finally, to three volumes, and received his 

 finishing hand in 1768. In this perform- 

 ance Linnaeus is the methodiser, and the 

 nomenclator of all the known productions 

 of the three kingdoms of nature. His 

 classifications are all so far artificial, that 

 he constitutes divisions and subdivisions 

 from minute qualities in the subject, which 

 serve very well as external marks, but 

 frequently have little relation to its essen- 

 tial character,and therefore bring together 

 tilings in their nature very dissimilar. 

 They are framed, however, with wonder- 

 ful ingenuity, and have undoubtedly pro- 

 duced a more accurate indentification in 

 all the branches of natural history than 

 before prevailed. This is the first step 

 to an exact history of any subject, and it 

 is ignorance that treats it with contempt 

 as a mere nomenclature. Although ar- 

 rangement was the point at which Lin- 

 naeus peculiarly laboured, yet many of 

 his smaller works prove his great atten- 

 tion to matters of use and curiosity ; and 

 no school has contributed so much to a 

 thorough knowledge of the productions 

 of nature as the Linnaean. With regard 

 to the particular parts of his system, the 

 botanical was the most generally receiv- 

 ed, and bids the fairest for duration. The 

 entomological, though possessing great 

 excellence, has in some measure been 

 abrogated by the more comprehensive 

 but more difficult method of Fabricius. 

 Those in the other branches of zoology 

 are generally in use, but have been im- 

 proved or rivalled. The mineralogical 

 has been entirely set aside by the great 

 advances made in chemical knowledge. 

 Linnaeus also carried his methodising 

 plants into the science of medicine, and 

 published a classified " Materia Medica," 

 and a system of nosology, under the title 

 of " Genera Morborum." Neither of 

 these, however, are considered as happy 

 efforts, and he can scarcely rank among 



