His great ambition, to be Professor of Botany in the famous 

 University of Upsala, was attained in 1741, and from that time 

 onward he was the centre of attraction to all who loved nature, not 

 only in his own country, but in the whole world. 



Linne died in 1778, and his library and collections passed into 

 the hands of his son. But at the death of his son in 1784, the 

 library and herbarium of the great naturalist were purchased by Sir 

 James Edward Smith, and are now in the possession of the Linnsean 

 Society of London ; so that the very tools which he used may be 

 inspected by his admirers in this country. 



I might refer to many more points in the life of this great man, 

 his travels, his unhappy private life, the marks of distinction 

 bestowed upon him, the love his pupils bore him, and the way they 

 vied with each other to enrich his collections, to increase his know- 

 ledge, and to aid his work ; but there are many other men of note 

 in my list of " Our Authorities," and I must pass on, remembering 

 that it is to him we owe the convenience of our binomial method of 

 nomenclature — Genus and species. At the same time it is impor- 

 tant for us as entomologists to know that it is now universally 

 recognised that no name is valid unless it has been bestowed either 

 in the " Systema Natural," vol. ii, date 1759, or subsequently. 



Let us try to place ourselves in the age of Linne and see what 

 kind of literature on natural history had up to that time been 

 produced, and what books were at his disposal for reference, in the 

 early eighteenth century. 



For our purpose we may recognise two main sections of the 

 lovers of nature. First, those who are deeply interested in the 

 habits, complex structure, and adaptation of living things to their 

 surroundings ; and secondly, those whose artistic skill added to an 

 artistic appreciation roused a desire to reproduce with their pencil 

 the living gems they met with as a permanent record of their 

 observations. Strange to say it is seldom that one meets with an 

 author in whom both these characteristics are present. Both to 

 depict in words and with the brush is a rare and unusual accomplish- 

 ment in one and the same person. Perhaps the best of the pre- 

 Linnaean observers were Reaumur, Frisch, and Swammerdam, while 

 among delineators were Madam Merian, Sepp, Rosel, and Petiver. 



Reaumur was a Frenchman, whose " Memoirs to serve for the 

 Study of Insects," in six large quarto volumes, with many plates and 

 abundant crude uncoloured figures, are a monument to his great 

 powers of observation and experiment. Few authors in later times 

 have recorded in such minute detail the observations they have 

 made, or have even made such correct and careful observations. 

 In experimental work he was much before his time, and on his 

 works naturalists of all countries modelled their own methods. 

 These volumes appeared from 1734 to 1742, and there have been 

 several editions and translations. 



Leonard Frisch was a native of Germany, who between 1721 and 



