26 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. I. 
St. G. Mivart points out again that whereas .Buff on 
was the apostle of the doctrine of the variability of species, 
Linnseus stood for that of their fixity, and in this respect 
also differed greatly from his contemporary {Report Brit. 
Assoc. Sect. Biology, 1870. “Essays” p. 193-225 — 1892).. 
CONCLUSION. 
Reverting to the principal thence of this address, it may 
be added that the personal history of Linnseus, his character, 
his influence as a teacher, and the vrork of h:s disciples, 
notwithstanding the many lessons that they teach, are 
matters that cannot now^be considered without unduly 
prolonging my rem.arks. This apples also to any reference 
to the bearing of his life-work on the establishment of the 
many learned corporate ons~including the Linnean 
Societies of Sweden, London and New South Wales — that 
perpetuate his m.emory in their titles, and have built so 
well on the foundations that his labours have provided. 
One tliought however, may find expression. Let me 
mention : — the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 1st 
February, 1907, issued, throughout the world, an invita- 
tion to the celebrations that were to mark the bicentenary 
of Linn ecus’ birth. This invitation referred to him, whose 
memory it was proposed to honour, in these amongst other 
words:' — “E floribus totius orbis terrarum sedulse apis 
mode congessit, quidquid posset rerum naturae ordinem 
habitumque investigationibus lucem afferre.” (Like unto 
the Busy Bee he gathered from the flowers of the wliole 
earth wdiatever he could in order to bring light— through 
his investigations— on the order and character of nature). 
The words “ a'pis modo ” (after the manner of the 
Busy Bee) in this invitation ! How pregnant with suggestive- 
ness are they for us ! What word has ever yielded from 
the earliest time so many figures of speech and similies 
as has it ? The great writers of ancient Greece and Rome, 
when they liad to refer to a people loyally related to a king ; 
to the kinglv state itself ; to the empire of the king ; to the 
gift, of elo'quence ; the delights of poetry; the love_ of 
whatever be sweet and pleasant ; the indefatigable exercises 
of skill and industry; the condition of concord ; a long 
life of health and prosperity ; and even, to the blessing of a 
future life ; and not only thus — as here — to the gathering 
of knowledge from every passing flower, have — let me 
tell you — again and again employed metaphorical language 
in which this social insect, the Bee, its habits and its pro- 
ductions, are made to figure. It is even so with those 
writers of a later age, who have inherited their spirit. 
These ideas, virtues, habits, and conditions, typified 
thus for all time by the Bee, and that so largely— as we have 
seen — found expression in the life and work of Linnseus, 
