230 
HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
nature, which, without this instrument, must ever have remamed in 
obscurity; by its assistance botanists studied the internal struciur^j 
of vegetables; they described the heart, wood, and pith; they per- 
ceived the newly formed bud, yet invisible to the naked eye; the 
future plant existing in the bulbous roots, and even in the seed; pores 
were discovered, which were found to be the organs of the expira- 
tion and inspiration of gases, thrown out as noxious, or inhaled as 
nutritious.* The importance of the stamen and pistils as essential 
to the perfection of the seed of vegetables began to be suspectec 
As yet, however, the science of Botany lay in scattered fragments 
)f various imperfect and contending systems ; much labour had 
been bestowed, and great improvements made, but there was n(i 
central point around which these improvements might be collected. 
The learned world were sensible of the deficiency ; but it required 
genius, great observation of nature, and courage to stem the tide oi 
popular prejudices, in him who should come forward to attempt the 
work of reform. 
Charles Von Linnaeus, an inhabitant of Sweden, suddenly emerg 
ing from obscurity, olTered to the world a system of Botany, so fas 
superior to all others, as to leave no room for dispute as to its com- 
parative merit. All preceding systems were immediately laid aside, 
and the classification of Linnseus was received with scarcely a dis- 
senting voice. What this system was, you have not now to learn, 
since it was the alphabet of your botanical studies. Linnseus ex- 
tended the principles of his classification to the animal and mineral 
kingdom ; in the language of an eminent botanist,t " His magic pen 
turned the wilds of Lapland into fairy fields, and the animals oi 
Sweden came to be classed by him as they went to Adam in the 
gprden of Eden to receive each his particular name." 
LECTURE XL V. 
HISTORY OF BOTANY FROM THE TIME OF LINN^US TO THE PRESENT. 
Linnaeus was born in 1707; his father was a clergyman, and had 
designed his son for the same sacred office ; but seeing him leave 
his studies to gather flowers, he inferred that he possessed a weak 
and trifling mind, unfit for close investigation; he was about to put 
<iim to a mechanical employment, when some discerning persons 
jjerceiving in his devotion to the works of nature the germ of a great 
and lofty mind, placed him in a situation favourable to the develop- 
ment of his peculiar talents, where he was allowed, without restraint, 
to study the book of nature, 
" This elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand." 
Linnceus formed anew the language of botanical science; every 
organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave it an appro- 
jjriate name ; every important modification was designated by a 
particular term. Thus comparisons became easy, and confusion 
was avoided. The characters of plants appeared in a new light. 
Each species took, oesides the name of the genus to which it belonged, 
a specific name wh^-h recalled some peculiarity distinctive of the 
♦ Leuwenhoek, Grew, Malpighi, and Camerarius, are among the first of the niod- 
,;rns who investigated the it.ternal structure of vegeiablea. 
t Sir James E, Smith. _ 
Science of botany yet imp n-fect— Linnseus— Eirlh of Linuajus, &e.— Whut were 
'.'ie improvements made by Li.mffius'] 
