312 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



designated by two names, one a substantive, which 

 indicates the genus, the other an adjective, which desig- 

 nates the species, and which may be said to correspond 

 to our family and baptismal names. He was thus 

 enabled to devise simple and precise systems of classifi- 

 cation, which rested upon a basis which was at once 

 more extended and more solid than any adopted by his 

 predecessors. These classifications, which were received 

 at the time with enthusiasm, are still made use of by 

 botanists. Linnaeus did not, however, deceive himself 

 in reference to the artificial nature of all systems gene- 

 rally, and of his own more especially ; he felt that 

 there must be something superior to his own method, 

 and in his Fragments of the Natural Method he aimed at 

 more general views ; but the proper time was not yet 

 come ; and this glory was reserved for two Frenchmen, 

 Laurence de Jussieu in botany, and Cuvier in zoology. 



NOTE VILT. 



Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a member of the Institute, 

 and a professor at the Jardin des Plantes, and in the 

 Faculty of Sciences, was born at Etampes in 1772, and 

 died at Paris in 1844, leaving a name which ranks 

 amongst the most illustrious in the annals of modern 

 science. This renown is due more especially to those 

 great and noble ideas which he advocated throughout 

 the whole of his life, and which he either introduced or 

 restored to the field of zoological inquiry. This general 

 direction of his researches, which was continued for 

 nearly half a century, explains the diversity of the 

 judgments which have been passed upon him by his 

 successors. To appreciate these different opinions, and 

 to analyse all that is just or exaggerated in them, 

 renders a serious discussion of these facts and doctrines 



