10 SCANDINAVIANS AND 
classified according to the color of the flowers. Linnzeus based his system on the 
number and different arrangenmet of the stamensand pistils. This was an artificial 
system, and Linneus knew it to beso. He once expressly stated that he expected 
it to be superseded by a more natural one, where the relationship of the plants 
would be better shown. The Linnean sexual system was and is a very convenient 
one, and has been used more or less up to our times, where the aim has been 
give a key, by the means of which one could quickly determine the names of the 
plants. That Linnzeus saw the natural relationship of plants is shown by the 
fact that he later gave names to several of our modern families of plants, and 
that he arranged his artificial system so that several of his classes or orders are 
practically equivalent to modern families, as for instance the 14th, 19th and 20th 
classes, and his orders of the 15th and 17th classes. ‘ 
Another invention of his was the uniform binomial names of the species. This 
was introduced in his “Species Plantarum” of 1753. Before Linneus, the bota- 
was the first to use consistently only such names. 
By these two systems it was from this time easy to tabulate and arrange the 
known facts about plants, and it was comparatively easy to find the description 
of a certain plant; for each genus had a certain place in the system and had only 
one name, and the species had only one additional name to distinguish it from 
other species of the same genus, in a similar way as John Smith and Andrew 
Smith of the same family have different personal names. 
During this period many native American botanists explored the country, a8 
John Clayton, John Mitchel, and Thomas Walter the southern states, C. Colden, 
Jane Colden, William and John Bartram the northern. Many Europeans made 
extensive travels in this continent, as Patrick Browne, N. J. von Jacquin and 
Swartz in the West Indics, and Miguel Venegas and A. Menzies on the Pacific 
coast. 
The following Scandinavians made contributions to the knowledge of the 
North American flora during this period: 
A. United States and Canada. 
Pehr Kalm was born at Nerpis, Finland, in 1715, and died 
as professor at the University of Abo, the 16th of November, 
1779. 
In the seventeen hundred and nineties, Baron Sten Carl Bjelke, 
then the vice president of the court of appeals (hofritten) of Fin- 
land, proposed to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at 
Se SNS eens ok ieee i eT 
Adee illustration of in th 1 f Li and that of his predecessors 
~ below on page 12 in the citation from Kalm, in which the latter first gives the old way 
Naming the plant, named after him i a ea 9; Vis,, Hntecin lattfon 
