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HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
LECTURE XLVI. 
History of Botany from the time of Linnaeus , to the present. 
Linnjeus 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, and was 
about to put him to a mechanical employment ; when some dis- 
cerning persons perceiving in his devotion to the w r orks of na- 
ture, the germ of a great and lofty mind, placed him in a situa- 
tion favorable to the developement 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.” 
Linnaeus formed anew the language of botanical science ; ev- 
ery organ of the plant he defined with precision, and gave it an 
appropriate name ; every important modification was designated 
by a particular term. Thus comparisons became easy, and con- 
fusion 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 pecu- 
liarity distinctive of the species. Before that time the species, 
instead of being thus named, required in some cases a whole 
sentence to express the name. 
But what rendered the works of Linnaeus most popular, was 
his artificial system, in which he had made the stamens and pis- 
tils subservient to a most simple and clear arrangement ; he re- 
marked the different insertions of the stamens ; their union by 
means of their filaments had been before observed, but he em- 
ployed them in a manner entirely original. 
This “ Northern Light f as he has sometimes been termed, 
contributed to the progress of physiology by his own discove- 
ries, and by improving upon the suggestions of those who had 
gone before him. 
In the details of science, he was no less accurate, than bold 
and comprehensive in his general views. The world knew 7 not 
which to admire the most, the multiplicity, the novelty, or the 
profound views of this modern Aristotle. His school became 
the resort of men of science from all Europe ; and he seemed 
to have acquired that influence over the human mind, which had 
been peculiar to the ancient philosophers of Greece. 
The defects of this great man, for human nature is never 
without its imperfections, were, that he sometimes cariied too 
Improvements made by Linnceu3. 
