228 
HISTOKY OF BOTAmr. 
him who should come forward to attempt the work of reform 
Charles Yon Linnceus^ an inhabitant of Sweden, suddenly 
emerging from obscurity, offered to the world a system of Bot- 
any so far sitperior to all others^ as to leave no room for dispute 
as to its compa/rative merit. All preceding systems were im- 
mediately laid aside, and the classification of Linnaeus was re- 
ceived with scarcely a dissenting voice. Linnaeus extended 
the j)rinciples of his classification to the animal and mineral 
kingdom ; in the language of an eminent botanist,* " His magic 
pen turned the wilds of Lapland into fairy fields, and the an- 
imals of Sweden came to be classed by him as they went to 
Adam in the garden of Eden to receive each his particular 
name." 
354. Linnasus was born in 170Y ; his father was a clergyman, 
and had designed his son for the same sacred ofiice ; but seeing 
him leave his studies to gather flowers, he inferred that he 
possessed a weak and trifling mind, unfit for close investiga- 
tion, and was about to put him to a mechanical employment, 
when some discerning persons, perceiving in his devotion to the 
works of nature the germ of a great and lofty mind, placed him 
in a situation favorable to the development of his peculiar tal- 
ents, where he was allowed, without restraint, to study the 
book of nature, 
This elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand." 
Linnmis formed anew the la/nguage of hotanical science , 
every organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave it 
an appropriate name; every important modification was desig 
nated by a particular term. Thus comparisons became easy, 
and confusion was avoided. The characters of plants appeared 
in a new light. Each species took, besides the name of the 
genus to which it belonged, a specific name, which recalled 
some peculiarity distinctive of the species. Before that time, 
the species, instead of being thus designated, required in some 
cases a whole sentence to express the name. But what most 
tended to render the works of Linnaeus popular, was his arti- 
ficial system, in which he had made the stamens and pistils sub- 
servient to a most simple and clear arrangement ; he remarked 
the different insertion of the stamens ; their union hy means of 
their filaments had heen hefore ol)served., hut he employed them in 
a manner entirely original. This " Northern Light^'^ as he has 
sometimes been termed, contributed to the progress of physiol- 
ogy, both by his own discoveries, and by improving upon the 
suggestions of those who had gone before him. In the details 
• Sir James E. Smith. 
354. Birth of Linnasus, &c. — What were the improvements made by Linnaeus ?- 
ed his works popular 1 — How did he contribute to the progress of physiology, &c. % 
Wha most Tender 
