SCIENTIFIC IMPORTANCE 
367 
poet Goethe to be its originator. How many important 
contributions on biology did he bring to light which 
previously had been overlooked ! He set forth in his 
books, after renewed observations, the phenomena of 
fertilization, and its attendant manifestations, hybrid¬ 
ization, seed-dispersal, development of vegetation at 
different times of year, the day and night position of 
leaves (sleep of plants), the opening and closing of 
flowers at different hours, anomalous growths, pro- 
tectives against enemies and unfavourable weather, 
the formation of buds, different kinds of plant com¬ 
munities, the relations of plants and animals, 
protective covering, etc. Questions earnestly debated 
later, were not strange to him, such as Darwin’s 
“ Origin of Species,” and “ Struggle for Existence,” 
although he, in some cases, gave a different interpre¬ 
tation to those now current. In some of these 
disputations the last word has not been said, and it may 
be that Linne’s ideas may yet prove correct. 
If we count the many blunders in the older authors 
which he set right, the false legends which he cleared 
up, the defective statements which he completed, it is 
easy to see how he received the epithet “ princeps 
botanicorum.” 
For the wider development of zoology, Linne’s 
activity was of fundamental value, even if he here 
almost entirely restricted himself to systematics, 
applying the principles which he made use of in his 
botanic writings. “ The Linnean system’s greatest 
merit,” observes Wiren (Zoological principles) con¬ 
sists in the introduction of a definite terminology, 
and very practical naming of animals, partly in his 
excellent descriptions both of species and genera as 
well as the higher groups, by which it became possible 
to retain order in the increasing number of new 
forms; partly and not least, in the consistent carrying 
out of divisions in the upper and lower categories, 
and referring species to their natural genera, by 
which the path was opened out for the modern con- 
