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OPPONENTS OF LINNAEUS- 
Heister had at last, the satisfaction of making a discovery from 
which he promised himself the greatest triumph and hoped to dwindle 
into nothing, both the fame of Linn a: us and his system of reform. 
A letter had fallen into his hands, which John PIenry Burkhard, 
first physician to the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel, had writ- 
ten to Leibnitz, and caused to be printed in 1702. In this letter, 
Burkhard, with great ingenuity, had already given some ideas of 
the sexes of plants and of the system the formation of which was af- 
terwards fully accomplished by Linnaeus. But at the same time 
Burkhard was never of opinion, that a new system of botany, might 
be introduced from the parts of fructification of plants *. He set forth 
the proposition of deriving the division, of their classes from the 
flower, and their orders from the fruit. Heister was not remiss 
in divulging his discovery. He caused a new edition of Burk- 
hard’s letter to be printed in 1750, with a circumstantial introduction, 
in which he direCted all the shafts of his resentment against Lin needs, 
and represented the novelty of his modern sexual system, with the 
most sarcastic irony t. Thus all notable inventions and reforms have 
* The following are Burkhard’s own words on this subject Quoniam autem partes 
genitales minus sunt conspedtae, nec spe&antium occulos facile alliciunt ; consultius esse duco, 
si earum conformatio in comparatione stirpium prsetermittatur et vesicularum tantum semi- 
nalium situs et numerus attendatur, et quidcm non ubivis, sed in plantis tantummodo, quae 
flores imperfedtos ferunt, ubi constituendis classibus teque inservire poteruut, ac i-n floribus 
perfedtis petalorum situs ac numerus. 
+ The following is the title of Burkhard’s letter, which is become a literary scarcity : 
)• Henrici Burkhard Epistolaad LeibNITZIUM, qua charactercm plantarum jiaturalem nec 
a radicibus nec ab aliis plantarum partibus minus essentialibus, peti posse ostendit, simulque 
in comparationem plantarum, quam partes earum genitales suppcditant, inquirit. Guelpherb , 
1701. 32 pages in quarto. 
met 
