122 
OPPONENTS OF LINNAEUS. 
« both points would throw a stigma upon my honour. He knows 
(( nothing of argument, reje&s my sexes of plants, laughs at my cha- 
« raQers, and challenges all the botanists, to declare if they compre- 
* { hend them*.” 
All real botanists understood the Linn^an eharahlers, save Sieces- 
beck. Linnaeus aided the wisest part — he made no reply to his in- 
vehlives. The intrinsic value of his works and his reform contained 
the best defence. What Siegesbeck had done by challenging Lin- 
naeus, was in process of time taken up voluntarily by other men. 
Dohtor John Browallius, Professor of the University of Abo in 
Finland , and afterwards bishop in that city, and Professor Gleditsch at 
Berlin , vindicated his cause against the litigious quibbler at Petersburghf. 
He had also provoked and charged Gleditsch, who very prudently 
treated him with the same contempt. And what were the consequences 
of this Russian quarrel? — The domination of Linnaeus spread farther 
with his fame — and Siegesbeck became everywhere unpopular and 
* Utinam Siegesbeckius luec scripsisset, dum pritnum edideram traclatulum ; addi- 
dicissem juvenis, quod senex addiscere cogor,— abstinere a scribendo, audire alios, tacere 
ipse. Quae me dementia cepit, qui tantum consumsi temporis, tot horas, noftesque in artem, 
tales quae proferat fruftus,— ludibrium ut evaderem orbil— Argumenta ejus nulla sunt, sed 
exclamationes totum per librum. Si respondeo aut taceo, commaculor utrinque ; rationes 
non intelligit ; negat sexum ; ridet meos characteres, et provocat omnes, an ullus eos intel- 
ligat? — Epist. Linn, ad Haller, vol. i. p. 361. 
+ This was done in the following works: — J. Browallii examen epicriseos in system?, 
plantarum sexuale Linnaei, audio re Siecesbeckio, Abo# 1739. 
J. G. Gleditsch Consideratio Epicriseos Siegesbeckianse, Berol. 1740, in Svo. 
Baron Haller wrote the following words at the bottom of the title page of Sieges- 
beck’s Epicrisis : — “In parte prima opusculi Rivini Methodum contra Raium et Dil- 
“ lenium defendlt; in altera in methodum Linnaei invehitur, quam vcreor ut ubique hi- 
“ tailexerit.'" 
ridiculous, 
