SKETCH OF CAROLUS LINNjEUS. 841 



this, and regarded, his system as simply a stepxfing-stone to some- 

 thing better. He is quoted as having said that whoever should 

 found a natural system on a solid basis would be his great 

 Apollo. An account in the " Philosophia Botanica " of a series of 

 naturally allied families is prefaced by the words that " a natural 

 method is the first and last thing to be desired in botany ; Nature 

 does not make leaps. All plants show affinity on either side, like 

 the territory in a geographical map." He and Bernard de Jus- 

 sieu corresponded on the subject, and the latter urged him to in- 

 stitute a natural system. Such a system, however, could not be 

 built at once, or by one man, and Linnaeus had to content 'him- 

 self with furnishing the staging by the aid of which others could 

 more slowly build up the permanent structure. 



Linnaeus is described as having been a little above the medium 

 height, rather slight, but well shaped; with broad head and 

 frank and open physiognomy ; lively and piercing eyes, with a 

 peculiarly refined expression. He was quick-tempered, but soon 

 recovered from his passion. " He lived simply, acted promptly, 

 and noted down his observations at the moment. . . . He found 

 biology/' says Mr. Jackson, " a chaos ; he left it a cosmos. When 

 he appeared upon the scene, new plants and animals were in the 

 course of daily discovery, in increasing numbers, due to the in- 

 crease of trading facilities ; he devised schemes of arrangement by 

 which these acquisitions might be sorted provisionally, until their 

 natural affinities should have become clearer. He made many mis- 

 takes ; but the honor due to him for having first enunciated the 

 true principles for defining genera and species, and his uniform 

 use of trivial names, will last so long as biology itself endures." 



Another biographer gives as the peculiar features in which he 

 surpassed, " the distinct study he made of each species, the regu- 

 larity and detail of the characteristics he gave of genera, the care 

 which he took to put in the background variable circumstances 

 like size and color, the energetic precision of his language, and 

 the convenience of his nomenclature." 



A scheme was started for erecting a monument to Linnaeus in 

 connection with the centenary of his death. As is usual in such 

 affairs, the subscriptions were slower in coming in than was con- 

 templated by the promoters of the enterprise, and the completion 

 of the monument was delayed. The statue, by Prof. Kjelberg, 

 was unveiled on the 13th of May, 1885. It stands in the Humle- 

 garden in Stockholm, and represents the " flower-king," as he is 

 called in Sweden, at the age of sixty years, in a meditating atti- 

 tude, holding the " Systema Naturae " and a bunch of flowers in 

 his right hand. It is surrounded by allegorical female figures 

 representing botany, zoology, medicine, and mineralogy. 



