26 



in different classes, whereas Tournefort places them 

 along with hemp, the hop, spinach, Mercurialis etc., in 

 one section. Again, Pyrola and water-lilies differ so 

 much in Artedi's view that they are referred to quite 

 separate classes, but Tournefort crowds them into one 

 section along with Hypericum or St. John's wort. Sim- 

 ilarly, he gives in one section Geranium, Caltha, Spi- 

 raea and others, for each of which Artedi reserves a 

 special section. 



Though some of Artedi's classifications seem to a 

 modern botanist strange in the extreme, yet it should 

 be borne in mind that Tournefort, a very renowned 

 specialist in botany, had only shortly before committed 

 what, from a modern point of view, must be regarded 

 as blunders of a still more astonishing character. The 

 few details briefly given above will suffice to show that 

 in this first performance of his in the department of 

 botany, Artedi gives clear evidence of having followed 

 up independent lines of thought and of being endowed 

 with considerable talent as a systematiser. His work, 

 however, in this field was, as a matter of course, with- 

 out any effect upon the development of botanical re- 

 search, for there was never published anything by his 

 hand on this subject save the short suggestion as to the 

 classification of the Umbelliferae according to the pre- 

 sence and occurrence of the involucral leaves, which 

 found a place in the first edition of Linnaeus' u Systema 

 Naturae". 



Quite otherwise is the state of things we find on 

 turning to Zoology. In that science Artedi achieved 

 foundational work, quite comparable in many respects 

 to what Linnaeus effected in the science of Botany. The 

 u Ichthyologia", by Artedi, consists of five sections, the 

 contents of which it is here proposed briefly to enumer- 

 ate and describe. The first bears the title, "Biblio- 

 theca Ichthyologica". In it the author gives us a criti- 

 cal and analytical review of the literature on Fishes 

 from the earliest times, as far as he was acquainted 

 with it; he commences with "Linus Poeta apud Theba- 



