NATURAL HISTORY 



of his predecessors. About the year 1670 Dr. Robert 

 Morison (1620-1683), of Aberdeen, published a clas- 

 sification of plants, his system taking into account the 

 woody or herbaceous structure, as well as the flowers 

 and fruit. This classification was supplanted twelve 

 years later by the classification of Ray, who arranged 

 all known vegetables into thirty-three classes, the 

 basis of this classification being the fruit. A few years 

 later Rivinus, a professor of botany in the University 

 of Leipzig, made still another classification, determining 

 the distinguishing character chiefly from the flower, 

 and Camerarius and Tournefort also made elaborate 

 classifications. On the Continent Tournefort's classi- 

 fication was the most popular until the time of Lin- 

 naeus, his systematic arrangement including about 

 eight thousand species of plants, arranged chiefly ac- 

 cording to the form of the corolla. 



Most of these early workers gave attention to both 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms. They were called 

 naturalists, and the field of their investigations was 

 spoken of as "natural history." The specialization 

 of knowledge had not reached that later stage in which 

 botanist, zoologist, and physiologist felt their labors 

 to be sharply divided. Such a division was becoming 

 more and more necessary as the field of knowledge 

 extended ; but it did not become imperative until long 

 after the time of Linnaeus. That naturalist himself, 

 as we shall see, was equally distinguished as botanist 

 and as zoologist. His great task of organizing knowl- 

 edge was applied to the entire range of living things. 



Carolus Linnaeus was born in the town of Rashult, 

 in Sweden, on May 13, 1707. As a child he showed 



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