122 



OPPONENTS OF LINNAEUS. 



" both points would throw a stigma upon my honour. He knows 

 " nothing of argument, rejefts my sexes of plants, laughs at my cha- 

 «« ra£lersj and challenges all the botanists, to declare if they compre- 

 *' hend them*." 



All real botanists understood the Linn^an charafters, save Sieces- 

 BECK. LiNNvEus afted the wisest part — he made no reply to his in-, 

 vedives. The intrinsic value of his works and his reform contained 

 the best defence. What Siegesbeck had done by challenging Lin- 

 NiEus, was in process of time taken up voluntarily by other men, 

 Doftor John Browallius, Professor of the University of Abo in 

 Finland, and afterwards bishop in that city, and Professor Gleditsch at 

 Berlin, vindicated his cause against the litigious quibbler at Petersburghf. 

 He had also provoked and charged Gleditsch, who very prudently 

 treated him with the same contempt. And what were the consequences 

 of this Russian quarrel? — The domination of Linn^iius spread farther 

 with his fame — and Siegesbeck became everywhere unpopular and 



* Utinam Siegesbeckius haec scrip sisset, dum primum edideram traflatulum ; addi- 

 dicissem juvenis, quod senex addiscere cogor, — abstinere a scribendo, audire alios, tacere 

 ipse. Qn^ae me dementia cepit, qui tantum consumsi temporis, tot horas, no£lesque in artem, 

 tales qua: proferat fruftus, — ludibi-ium ut evaderem orbi ! — Argiimenta ejus nulla sunt, sed 

 exclamationes totum per librum. Si respondeo aut taceo, commaculor utrinque ; rationes 

 r.on intelligit ; negat sexura ; ridet meos charattires, et provocat omnes, an uUus eos intel- 

 ligat? — Epist. Linn, ad Haller. vol. i. p. 361. 



•|- This was done in the following works: — J. Browallii examen epicriseos in systema 

 plantarum sexuale Linnaei, auftore Siegesbeckio, Jboa 1739. 



J. G. Gleditsch Consideratio Epicriseos Siegesbeckianae, Berol. 1740, in 8vo. 



Baron Haller wrote the following words at the bottom of the title page of Sieges- 

 beck's Epicrisis :—" In parte prima opusculi RiviNi Methodum contra Raium er Dil- 

 «' LENiuM defendit; in altera in methodum Linnjei invehitur, q^uam vereor ut ubique in- 

 «' te-llexerit:' 



ridiculousj 



