HIS AUTHORSHIP 
273 
(Royal Society, 1753, and Society of Arts 1762), 
Trondhjem (1766, the first foreigner chosen), Celle 
(1767), Philadelphia (1770), Flushing (1771), Rotter¬ 
dam (1771), Edinburgh (1772), Bern (1772), Siena 
( 1 773)* “ I am weary of corresponding with so many ” 
was his not unnatural remark. 
The Royal Bible Commission in 1773 appointed 
Linne as one of the Commissioners, and he went 
through the Swedish version to see where it needed 
correction as to Botany or Zoology. The few 
emendations he induced his fellow-commissioners to 
adopt did not compensate for the time he devoted to 
the service. 
Dr. J. M. Hulth’s admirable and accurate 
bibliography cited later, frees one from a detailed 
enumeration of Linne’s works, but a rapid survey will 
be expected here of the more important books. In 
1735 his “ Systema Naturae” came out, as already 
mentioned on p. 142 followed by a second, sixth, 
tenth, and twelfth editions, the intermediate numbers 
being due to other editors. The thirteenth and 
fourteenth were styled “ Systema vegetabilium ” and 
edited by J. A. Murray. The tenth edition (1758-9) 
forms the foundation of binomials for zoologists. 
Then followed “ Genera plantarum,” with six editions, 
and in 1753 his “Golden Book,” “Species plantarum,” 
which he began in 1746 and laboured night and day 
upon till 1748. Then he paused, and as he confessed 
to Back, he “ wanted to show his competence to the 
world, had he only had time to complete it.” 
This feeling did not last long, and a year later he 
informed Back that he was progressing, that he 
reached Poa in a week; five months later he had 
reached Icosandria. Early in 1752 he was engaged 
on Syngenesia, and in August of the same year, he 
thankfully recorded that he had finished writing the 
whole book. He considered it his best work, 
embracing eight thousand species and many varieties, 
and it is a book which botanists sorely needed and 
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