230 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



nature, which, without this instrument, must ever have remained in 

 obscurity ; by its assistance botanists studied the internal structure 

 of vegetables; they described the heart, wood, and pith; they per- 

 ceived the newly formed hud, yet invisible to the naked eye; the 

 future plant existing in the bulbous roots, and even in the seed ; pores 

 were discovered, which were found to be the organs of the expira- 

 tion and inspiration of gases, thrown out as noxious, or inhaled as 

 nutritious.* The importance of the stamen and pistils as essential 

 to the perfection of the seed of vegetables began to be suspected. 



As yet, however, the science of Botany lay in scattered fragments 

 }f various imperfect and contending systems; mucJi labour had 

 been bestowed, and great improvements made, but there was no 

 central point around which these improvements might be collected. 



The learned world were sensible of the deficiency ; but it required 

 genius, great observation of nature, and courage to stem the tide of 

 popular prejudices, in him who should come forward to attempt the 

 work of reform. 



Charles Von Linnaeus, an inhabitant of Sweden, suddenly emerg 

 ing from obscurity, offered to the world a system of Botany, so far 

 superior to all others, as to leave no room for dispute as to its com- 

 parative merit. All preceding systems were immediately laid aside, 

 and the classification of Linnaeus was received with scarcely a dis- 

 senting voice. What this system was, you have not now to learn, 

 since it was the alphabet of your botanical studies. Linnaeus ex- 

 tended the principles of his classification to the animal and mineral 

 kingdom; in the language of an eminent botanist,! " His magic pen 

 turned the wilds of Lapland into fairy fields, and the animals ot 

 Sweden came to be classed by him as they went to Adam in the 

 garden of Eden to receive each his particular name." 



LECTURE XLV. 



HISTORY OF BOTANY FROM THE TIME OF LINN^US TO THE FRESENT. 



LinnjEus was born in 1707 ; his father was a clergyman, and had 

 designed his son for the same sacred office; but seeing him leave 

 his studies to gather flowers, he inferred that he possessed a weak 

 and trifling mind, unfit for close investigation; he was about to put 

 him to a mechanical employment, when some discerning persons 

 perceiving in his devotion to the works of nature the germ of a great 

 and lofty mind, placed him in a situation favourable to the develop- 

 ment of his peculiar talents, where he was allowed, without restraint, 

 to study the book of nature, 



" This elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand." 



Linnaeus formed anew the language of botanical science ; every 

 organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave it an appro- 

 priate name ; every important modification was designated by a 

 particular term. Thus comparisons became easy, and confusion 

 was avoided. The characters of plants appeared in a new light. 

 Each species took, besides the name of the genus to which it belonged, 

 a specific name which recalled some pecuUarity distinctive of the 



* Leuwenhoek, Grew, Malpighi, and Camerarius, are among the first of the mod- 

 erns who investigated the internal structure of vegetables. 

 t Sir James E. Smith. 



Science of botany yet imperfect— Linnaeus— Birth of Linnaeus, &c. — What were 

 tSe improvements made by LinnaBusI 



