322 LINNiEUS AND THE JUSSIEUS 



a sub-class, but these attempts to isolate him have not 

 commended themselves to later zoologists. 



THE AMCENITATES ACADEMICS 



These graduation-theses are of interest to the historian 

 of biological progress. Each bears the name of some 

 graduate of Upsala, but the hand of Linnaeus is every- 

 where apparent. We must suppose that he suggested 

 the topics, furnished the learning required for handling 

 them, enriched them with his mature thoughts, selected 

 and edited them. Sometimes he quotes them as his 

 own.^ 



In Vol. II of the Amcenitates (Biberg on (Economia 

 Natures) and again in the Philosophia Botanica, pub- 

 lished in the same year (1751), Linnaeus discusses the 

 natural methods of dispersal of seeds with abundant 

 knowledge and acuteness. He enumerates seeds dis- 

 persed by the wind, classifying them according to the 

 part which is specially modified, mechanically ejected 

 seeds, hooked seeds and fruits, seeds swallowed by 

 animals, seeds dispersed by running water, &c. Then 

 follows an account of the defences of seeds, most of 

 which we should now place among means of dis- 

 persal (deceptive appearance, burying in the ground, 

 spines, &c.). 



The thesis entitled " Sponsalia Plantar um " (J. G. 

 Wahlbom) is admitted both by Wahlbom and Linnaeus 



' The Sponsalia Plantaram, the Vires Plantarum and the Flora Economica 

 are thus quoted in the Philosophia Botanica, preface and § 52. Dr. Daydon 

 Jackson, who has paid close attention to all matters connected with Linnaeus 

 and many other naturalists, informs me that it is now impossible to decide 

 which of the papers in the Amcenitates Academicce are to be attributed to 

 Linnaeus. Some are the work of the respondents, except for emendations 

 supplied by the professor, while in other cases, according to the testimony of 

 one of them, J. G. Acrel, the matter of the thesis was dictated by Linnseus, 

 the candidate for graduation having merely to supply the Latin wording. 



