July 19, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



69 



ferring to American botany, such as Mor- 

 ison's "Plantarum Historia," Plukenett's 

 "Almagestrum Botanicum" and "Phyto- 

 graphia," Petiver's " Gazophylaeium, " 

 Sloane's "Jamaica," Phmiier's "Plan- 

 tarum Americanarum Genera," "Plan- 

 tarum Americanarum Fasciculus Primus" 

 and "Filicetum Americanum," Catesby's 

 "Historia Naturalis," and, later, Cornuti's 

 "Canadensium Plantarum Historia." 



After completing the "Hortus Cliffor- 

 tianus," Linnteus returned to Leyden, 

 where he spent some time helping Gro- 

 novius with the editing of his "Flora Vir- 

 ginica," based on a large collection of 

 plants collected by Clayton. Here again 

 he came in contact with American plants. 



Linnffius then returned to Sweden and 

 became a practising physician. He was 

 soon appointed professor of medicine at 

 Upsala, but by common agreement he ex- 

 changed chairs with Kosen, who held the 

 professorship of botany. He now began 

 work upon the most important book of his 

 life, his "Species Plantarum." In this he 

 tried to include a short description of every 

 known species of plant, together with the 

 most important synonyms and citations. 

 In this book the Linntean binomial system 

 of nomenclature was used for the first time. 

 Linnaeus was not the first to give plants 

 names ; nor was he the first to name genera. 

 Many Latin plant-names had come down 

 from antiquity, while others had been pro- 

 posed by his predecessors. Men like Tourne- 

 fort and Micheli had in some cases clearer 

 ideas of genera than Linnfeus himself. 

 Neither was Linnaeus the first one to use 

 binomials. In Cornuti's work on Canadian 

 plants, for example, we find almost as many 

 binomials as polynomials ; but it is doubtful 

 if Linnffius had seen Cornuti's book when 

 he first wrote his "Species Plantarum." 

 He does not cite it in the first edition, but 

 does so in the second. Linnffius was, how- 



ever, the first one to use binomials systemat- 

 ically and consistently. Before his time 

 botanists had recognized genera and applied 

 to them Latin nouns as names. In order 

 to designate species, they added to these 

 noims adjective descriptive phrases; These 

 consisted sometimes of a single adjective, 

 as in Quercus alba, the white oak, but more 

 often of a long string of adjectives and 

 adjective modifiers, as in the case of the 

 blue-grass mentioned above. The specific 

 name had hitherto been merely a descrip- 

 tion modifying the generic name ; from this 

 time it became really a name, although a 

 single adjective in form. An illustration 

 of the pre-Linnfean form of plant-names 

 might be had if, instead of "Grace Dar- 

 ling," one should say, "Mr. Darling's 

 beautiful, slender, graceful, blue-eyed girl 

 with long golden curls and rosy cheeks." 

 "Grace" is just as descriptive of the girl 

 as this whole string of adjectives. It may 

 be that "Grace" is not always applicable 

 to the person to whom the name is applied ; 

 but this is also often the case with many 

 specific plant-names. Asclepias syriaca and 

 Eumex Britannica are American plants, 

 and Rubus deliciostis is one of the lea.st de- 

 licious of the raspberry tribe. This inven- 

 tion and strict application of binomial 

 names could not but cause a revolution in 

 botany. Since the appearance of "Species 

 Plantarmn ' ' in 1753 it has been possible to 

 pigeonhole not only genera, but also spe- 

 cies of plants. 



Before this useful book was printed, Lin- 

 naeus had become better acqiiainted with 

 North American plants, and in another 

 way. Baron Bjelke, the vice-president of 

 the Court of Appeals of Finland, had pro- 

 posed to the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Stockholm to send an able man to Iceland 

 and Siberia, countries partly in the same 

 latitude as Sweden, "to make observations 

 and such collections of seeds and plants as 



