14 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. I. 
not only an image of animated nature, but an epitome 
of the entire science of living things. A picture due to the 
Dutch Zoologist, Van der Hoven. 
Such a “ natural method ” of arrangement so far as 
plants are concerned, attempted by the pre-Limiean English 
botanist, Ray, was carried to a high degree of perfection by 
Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, in 1789, in a fundamental 
work in which are given the characters of all the genera 
then known, disposed in natural families. But although 
this has been improved by A. P. De Candolle, Endlicher, 
Bindley, Brogniart, Hooker and Bentham, in some respects, 
and is practically the method of arrangement of plants now 
favoured, that portion that relates to the Monochlam^^deee, 
or plants having flowers of a single envelope, is still un- 
satisfactory, as the last-mentioned botanists admit. {Vid^ 
Genera Plantarum, preface). 
At the same time Linnaeus was not insensilJe to this 
requirement in the comprehensive view of plant life, as will 
be shown subsequently (p. 22), in briefly considering his 
position as a philosophical naturalist, and. indeed, the 
late Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England, 
has protested that “ these have done scant justice to his 
immortal memory, who find in his artificial system his 
chief claim to fame.” {Proc. Lin. 8oc., London, Session 
1887-1888, p. 76.). And Professor T. H. Fries, cherishing a 
like opinion in his well known “ Eulogium on Linnaeus,” 
pronounced on the centenary of the foundation of the 
Linnean Society, thus referred to him, as “ one who laid 
he chief ground work of the natural system ” of botany. 
Lustn^tjs as Physiological Botanist. 
Reference to tlie seven volumes of Linnaeus, Amcenitates 
Academicce will indicate that physiological questions 
also largely claimed his attention. Under the title “ Spon- 
sulia plantarum ” he dealt with the office of pollen and the 
tlieory of sexuality in plant life. He also treated therein 
of what he styled “ generatio ambigena,” the sleep of plants ; 
as well dealt with the phenological facts in a section entitled 
“ Calendarium Florae,” and with plant metamorphosis 
and theoretical morphology, under the heading “Prolepsis 
Plantarum , a subject pursued afterwards with such success, 
but in a different manner, by Goethe, 
Linn^ijs and the Plants oe Aitstkalia. 
Although Linnaeus is regarded by botanists as the 
sponsor for the names of 352 (95 nat’sd) or more Australian 
plants, and L. or Linn, is attached to their specific desig- 
nations accordingly, it may be affirmed nevertheless that 
no specimen emanating from this continent was examined 
by him for descriptive purposes. In fact, when his title is 
