THE SEQUOIA 
Linneeus recognized that certain groups of animals were sub- 
ordinate to other groups, and by his binomial nomenclature he 
provided a place in his system for every species. To each species 
two Latin names were given; the first, always beginning with a 
capital, was the name of the genus; the second, now usually 
spelled with a small letter, that of the species. For example, the 
scientific name of our Big Tree is “‘Sequota gigantea,” that is, 
Sequota is the name of the genus, and grgantea the name of the 
species. (To avoid confusion, it is customary now to add the 
name of the scientist who first describes the species; thus, ‘‘ Se- 
qguoia gigantea Decaisne,”’ indicates that Decaisne was the natur- 
alist who first described and named the Big Tree.) 
The first edition of Linnzus’ “Systema Nature’ was pub- 
lished in 1735. Linnzus was a firm believer in the special crea- 
tion of each species, and in one of his books says, “‘ We reckon as 
many species as issued in pairs from the hands of the Creator.” 
Among the naturalists of the eighteenth century, Goethe and 
Cuvier are conspicuous. The former (1796), although a great 
poet, made valuable contributions to science. He introduced 
the word “morphology”’ as a designation of the study of form 
or structure, and was the first to advance the vertebral theory 
of the skull, that is, that the skull represents modified vertebre. 
He recognized the significance of vestigial organs, for example, 
gill slits in human embryos, appendages in whales, etc., and pre- 
dicted the discovery of the premaxilla in man—the supposed 
absence of which was considered to be a character which dis- 
tinguished man from the apes. 
It was, however, Georges Cuvier (born in 1769), the famous 
French naturalist, who was the leader in science for more than 
half a century. He stands as a striking example of a man who 
was remarkably correct in his observations of nature, but equally 
incorrect in his generalizations. His work on the Tertiary mam- 
mals of France marked the beginning of palzontology. He was 
the first to point out the resemblance between “ Anchitherium” 
and the modern horse, a fact which is one of the strongest evi- 
dences of evolution, He was a preformationist and believed in 
Catastrophism (the theory that the earth as it is at present is the 
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