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uiv 

44 
H824b 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 

Mrs.  Frank  R.  Peabody 

for 

Dr.   Frank  15.   Feabody 
Memorial 


i  ir 


H 


Annala  N.  Y.  Acad.  Sci.,  Vol.  XVm,  Part  I,  January,  1908. 


V__^»' 

(ANNALS  N.Y.  ACAD.  Sci.,  Vol.  XVIII,  No.  1,  Part  I,  pp.  1-90.     January,  1908.]   V 


THE  BICENTENARY  OF  THE  BIRTH  OF 
•^      CAROLUS  LINNAEUS.  / 

By  EDMUND  Ons  JHovEY,     <20(. . 
Recording  Secretary. 

On  May  23,  1907,  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  common  with 
many  other  scientific  societies  and  institutions  throughout  the  world  cele- 
brated the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  great  Swedish  naturalist 
Carl  von  Linne",  who  is  better  known  perhaps  by  his  Latin  name  Linnaeus. 
In  preparation  for  the  event,  the  following  invitation  was  sent  out  to 
sister  societies  throughout  the  world  and  to  the  Honorary  Members  of 
the  Academy. 

The   New   York   Academy   of  Sciences 

wfll  celebrate  on  May  23,  1907,  the 
Two  Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  Birth  of  Carl  von  Linne\ 

At  this  time,  commemorative  exercises  will  be  held  at 

The  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  The  New  York  Zoological  Park, 

The  New  York  Botanical  Garden,  The  New  York  Aquarium, 

The  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

A  beautiful  bridge  crossing  the  Bronx  River  between  the  Botanical  Garden  and 
the  Zoological  Park  will  be  dedicated  to  the  distinguished  Swedish  naturalist. 

(The  Royal  Swedish  Academy  of  Sciences') 

is  invited  to  take  part  in  this  celebration  by  contributing  an  official  document, 
appreciative  of  the  works  of  Linn£,  to  be  read  before  the  members  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences  and  assembled  guests. 

A7.  L.  Britton,  E.  O.  Hovey, 

President .  Secretary . 


The  invitation  was  accompanied  by  an  illustration  of  the  Linnaeus  Bridge, 
to  which  reference  was  made. 

To  all  sister  societies  hi  the  United  States,  Canada  and  Mexico,  the  fol- 
lowing additional  invitation  was  sent. 


2  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

(The  National  Academy  of  Sciences) 

is  cordially  invited  by  the 
New   York   Academy   of   Sciences 

to  participate  in  its  exercises 

commemorative  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  the  Swedish  naturalist 

Carl  von  Linne* 

.through  an  authorized  representative 

as  well  as  by  the  official  document  asked  for 

in  the  accompanying  invitation 

An  early  reply  is  desired 

On  the  day  of  the  anniversary  the  committee  charged  by  the  Council 
with  making  arrangements  for  the  celebration  carried  out  the  following 
program. 

PROGRAM  OF  EXERCISES 

MORNING 

9: 00-12: 00.—  At  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
Exhibition  of  American  Animals  known  to  Linnaeus 

In  charge  of  F.  M.  CHAPMAN,  W.  M.  WHEELER,  W.  BEUTENMUELLER 
Exhibition  of  Shells,  Minerals  and  Rocks  known  to  Linnaeus 

In  charge  of  L.  P.  GRATACAP,  E.  O.  HOVEY 

10: 30. —  Reading  of  letters  from  other  Societies  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Academy 
11 : 15. —  Address  by  J.  A.  ALLEN  on  "Linnaeus  and  American  Zoology" 

AFTERNOON 

2:00-4:00. —  At  the  New  York  Botanical  Garden,  Museum  Building,  Bronx  Park 
Exhibition  of  American  Plants  known  to  Linnaeus 

In  charge  of  L.  M.  UNDERWOOD,  J.  K.  SMALL,  P.  A.  RYDBERG,  M.  A.  HOWE, 

G.  V.  NASH 
Exhibition  of  the  Botanical  Writings  of  Linnaeus  and  of  Portraits  of  Linnaeus 

In  charge  of  C.  B.  ROBINSON,  J.  H.  BARNHART 

3: 10. —  Address  by  P.  A.  RYDBERG  on  "Linnaeus  and  American  Botany" 
3:40. —  Exhibition  of  selected  lantern  slides  of  Flowers  of  North  American 
Plants  known  to  Linnaeus.      In  charge  of  H.  H.  RUSBY 

4: 00-4 : 30.—  Walk  South  from  Museum  Building  through  the  Grounds  of  the  Garden 

to  the  Linnaeus  Bridge 
W.  A.  MURRILL  will  point  out  characteristic  American  trees  known  to  Linnaeus 

4: 30. —  At  the  Bridge  over  the  Bronx  River  on  Pelham  Parkway 
UNVEILING  OF  A  BRONZE  TABLET  COMMEMORATING  LINN^US 
Address  by  the  President  of  the  Academy,  and  placing  of  documents  in  the  tablet 
Singing  by  the  AMERICAN  UNION  OF  SWEDISH  SINGERS:    "Hear  us,  Svea" 
—  Wennerberg 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  3 

Acceptance  of  the  tablet  on  behalf  of  the  City  of  New  York  by  the  Hon.  JOSEPH 
I.  BERRY,  Commissioner  of  Parks  of  the  Borough  of  the  Bronx 

Acceptance  of  the  key  of  the  tablet  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society  for  safe 
keeping  until  May  23,  1957 

Singing  by  the  AMERICAN  UNION  OF  SWEDISH  SINGERS:  "Battle  Hymn"  — 
Lindblad 

Address  by  G.  F.  KUNZ,  President  of  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preserva- 
tion Society 

Address  by  E.  F.  JOHNSON,  President  of  the  United  Swedish  Societies  of  New 
York 

Singing  by  the  AMERICAN  UNION  OF  SWEDISH  SINGERS:  "Banner  Song" — 
Wennerberg 

5:16-6:30.— At  the  New  York  Zoological  Park 

Examination  of  the  Collections  with  special  reference  to  Animals  known  to 

Linnaeus 

In  charge  of  W.  T.  HORNADAY,  C.  W.  BEEBE,  R.  L.  DITMARS,  W.  REID 
BLAIR 

EVENING 

8:00. —  At  the  Museum  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute,  Eastern  Parkway 
Opening  address  by  F.  A.  LUCAS 
Address  by  E.  L.  MORRIS  on  the  "Life  of  Linnaeus" 
Musical  number  by  the  Glee  Club  of  the  UNITED  SWEDISH  SOCIETIES 
Address  by  F.  A.  LUCAS  on  "Linnaeus  and  American  Natural  History" 
Musical  numbers  by  the  Glee  Club  of  the  UNITED  SWEDISH  SOCIETIES 
Exhibition  by  means  of  lantern  slides  of  "  Plants  and  Animals  known  to  Lin- 
naeus."    In  charge  of  Dr.  A.  J.  GROUT,  F.  A.  LUCAS 

8:30-10:30.— At  the  New  York  Aquarium,  Battery  Park 

(Admittance  by  invitation  only) 
Reception  given  by  the  New  York  Zoological  Society  to  the  New  York  Academy 

of  Sciences  and  Guests 
Demonstrations  of  features  of  Marine  Life  known  to  Linnaeus 


Commemoration  of  the  centennial  of  the  Aquarium  building 
First  view  of  the  collections  of  the  Aquarium  by  night.     Music 

NATHANIEL  L.  BRITTON         FREDERIC  A.  LUCAS 
HERMON  C.  BUMPUS  CHARLES  H.  TOWNSEND 

WILLIAM  T.  HORNADAY          WILLIAM  MORTON  WHEELER 

Committee 
EDMUND  OTIS  HOVEY,  Secretary 

American  Museum  Natural  History 


ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


The  carrying  out  of  the  plans  of  the  Committee  was  made  possible 
through  a  special  fund  of  about  $1000,  the  subscribers  to  which  were 


Adams,  Edward  D. 

Adler,  I. 

Amend,  B.  G. 

Armstrong,  S.  T. 

Atkins,  George  F. 

Avery,  Samuel  P. 

Barron,  George  D. 

Baskerville,  Charles 

Beck,  F.  C.  T. 

Beckhard,  Martin 

Berthoud,  Edward  S. 

Beuren,  F.  T.  van 

Bird,  Henry 

Bristol,  John  I.  D. 

Brown,  Edwin  H. 

Bumpus,  H.  C. 

Bunting,  Martha 

Burgess,  E.  S. 

Call,  A.  Ellsworth 

Cassabeer,  H.  A.,  Jr. 

Chamberlain,  Leander  T. 

Chandler,  C.  F. 

Chubb,  S.  H. 

Cline,  Miss  May 

Cohn,  J.  M. 

Corning,  C.  R. 

Cox,  C.  F. 

Davenport,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B. 

Davidson,  Miss  Mary  E.  S. 

Da  vies,  J.  Clarence 

Dean,  Bashford 

Demorest,  W.  C. 

Dodge,  C.  H. 

Donald,  James  M. 

Douglas,  James 

Draper,  Mrs.  Henry 

Dunham,  E.  K. 

Dwight,  Jonathan,  Jr. 

Dwight,  Melatiah  E. 

Foot,  Miss  Katharine 

Ford,  James  B. 

Frissell,  A.  S. 

Gooch,  F.  C. 

Greenwood,  Isaac  J. 

Haupt,  Louis 

Herrman,  Mrs.  Esther 


Hess,  Selmar 

Holden,  E.  R. 

Hooker,  Miss  Henrietta  E. 

Hornaday,  William  T. 

Huntington,  Archer  M. 

Hussakof,  L. 

Jesup,  Morris  K. 

Kaufman,  Miss  Pauline 

Kemp,  James  F. 

Kuntz,  C. 

Kunz,  George  F. 

Lagerberg,  J.  de 

Langeloth,  I. 

Langmann,  G. 

Levy,  Miss  Daisy 

Low,  Seth 

Lucas,  F.  A. 

Matthew,  G.  F. 

McKim,  H. 

McMillin,  Emerson 

McNeil,  C.  R. 

New  York  Academy  of  Sciences 

Nichols,  John  Treadwell 

Oettinger,  P.  J. 

Osborn,  H.  F. 

Osborn,  W.  C. 

Osburn,  Raymond  C. 

Owens,  William  W. 

Parsons,  Mrs.  Edwin 

Parsons,  John  E. 

Pederson,  Frederick  M. 

Perkins,  W.  H. 

Perry,  C.  J. 

Phipps,  Henry 

Pinchot,  Gifford 

Post,  Abram  S. 

Ramsperger,  G. 

Riker,  Samuel 

Robb,  J.  Hampton 

Robinson,  Miss  Winifred  J. 

Rydberg,  P.  A. 

Seabury,  George  J. 

Seitz,  Charles  E. 

Sellew,  T.  G. 

Shannon,  William  Purdy 

Smith,  Eugene 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  5 

Stetson,  Francis  Lynde  White,  I.  C. 

Stolpe,  Mauritz  Wicke,  William 

Thorburn  &  Co.,  J.  M.  Williams,  R.  S. 

Townsend,  C.  H.  Wilson,  Edward  B. 

Tuckerman,  Alfred  Wood,  Miss  Cynthia  A. 

Watson,  J.  H.  Woodward,  Robert  S. 
Yatsu,  Naohid6 

The  Academy  also  acknowledges  the  co-operation  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  the  New  York  Botanical  Garden,  the  New 
York  Zoological  Society,  the  Museum  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  the  American  Union  of  Swedish  Singers  and  the  Glee  Club  of  the 
United  Swedish  Societies,  in  making  the  celebration  dignified  and  successful. 

After  the  inspection  of  the  special  exhibits  in  the  American  Museum,  the 
literary  exercises  began  with  the  reception  by  President  Britton  of  the  official 
delegates  of  societies  as  follows,  each  presenting  the  greeting  of  his  society. 


Royal  Swedish  Horticultural  Society J.  de  Lagerberg 

Society   of   Friends   of   Natural    Sciences,  Ekaterinburg, 

Russia George  F.  Kunz 

r  J.  J.  Stevenson 
Sociedad  Cientifica  "Antonio  Alzate,"  Mexico -j  C.  T.  Stevens 

U.  F.Kemp 

Boston  Society  of  Natural  History J.  A.  Allen 

Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology William  Brewster 

Natural  History  Society  of  West  Newbury,  Mass William  Merrill 

American  Journal  of  Science Herbert  E.  Gregory 

Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences Alexander  W.  Evans 

Linnaean  Society  of  New  York Jonathan  D wight, Jr. 

New  York  Botanical  Garden Addison  Brown 

New  York  Zoological  Society H.  F.  Osborn 

American  Museum  of  Natural  History G.  H.  Sherwood 

Torrey  Botanical  Club H.  H.  Rusby 

New  York  Entomological  Society E.  B.  South  wick 

New  York  Microscopical  Society J.  L.  Zabriskie 

New  York  Historical  Society Samuel  V.  Hoffman 

American  Institute  of  the  City  of  New  York Robert  Rutter 

Buffalo  Society  of  Natural  Sciences T.  G.  Smith 

Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences {  A-  J-  Grout 

1  F.  A.  Lucas 

Staten  Island  Association  of  Arts  and  Sciences Arthur  Hollick 

Maryland  Academy  of  Sciences C.  C.  Plitt 

American  Philosophical  Society J.  W.  Harshberger 

American  Entomological  Society J.  W.  Harshberger 

National  Academy  of  Sciences   H.  F.  Osborn 

Biological  Society  of  Washington Edward  L.  Morris 


ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Ohio  Academy  of  Sciences Raymond  C.  Osborn 

Indiana  Academy  of  Sciences Guy  West  Wilson 

E.  J.  H.  Amy 
E.  M.  Rogers 


Colorado  Scientific  Society 


Telegraphic  greetings  were  read  from 


B.  B.  Lawrence 
E.  E.  Olcott 
W.  S.  Morse 


The  Royal  Swedish  Academy  of  Sciences,  Stockholm 

The  Royal  University,  Upsala 

The  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Edinburgh 

The  Royal  Dublin  Society,  Dublin 

The  Gothenburg  Society  of  Science,  Gothenburg 

The  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences,  St.  Petersburg 

The  Uralian  Natural  History  Society,  Ekaterinburg 

The  Royal  Linnaean  Academy,  Rome 

The  Botanical  Garden,  Rio  de  Janeiro 

After  the  reading  of  these  greetings,  the  Secretary  submitted  the  fol- 
lowing complete  list  of  the  societies,  other  organizations  and  individuals 
sending  greetings. 

Foreign  Societies 

The  Linnsean  Society,  London 

The  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  London 
The  Society  of  Arts,  London 

The  Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society,  Fahnouth 
The  Cambridge  Philosophical  Society,  Cambridge 

The  North  of  England  Institute  of  Mining  and  Mechanical  Engineers,  Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne 

The  Royal  Scottish  Geographical  Society,  Edinburgh 

The  Royal  Botanic  Garden,  Edinburgh 

The  Royal  Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow,  Glasgow 

The  Royal  Dublin  Society,  Dublin 

Den  Norske  Gradmaalingskommission,  Kristiania 

The  Royal  Swedish  Academy  of  Sciences,  Stockholm 

The  Royal  Swedish  Horticultural  Society,  Stockholm  (Delegate) 

The  Gothenburg  Society  of  Sciences,  Gothenburg 

The  Royal  University  of  Upsala,  Upsala 

The  University  of  Lund,  Lund 

The  Geological  Commission  of  Finland,  Helsingfors 

The  Imperial  Academy  of  Science,  St.  Petersburg 

The  Uralian  Natural  History  Society,  Ekaterinburg  (Delegate) 

Koninklijke  Akademie  van  Wetenschappen  te  Amsterdam,  Amsterdam 

Senaat  der  Rijks  Universiteit  te  Leiden,  Leiden 

Koniglich  Preussische  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,  Berlin 

Berliner  Entomologische  Verein,  Berlin 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  7 

Kommission  zur  wissenschafflichen  Untersuchung  der  deutschen  Meere,  Kiel 

Kaiserliche  Leopoldinisch-Carolinische  deutsche  Akademie  der  Naturforscher, 
Halle,  A.S. 

Verein  fiir  vaterlandische  Naturkunde  in  Wiirttemberg,  Stuttgart 

Thurgauische  Naturforschende  Gesellschaft,  Frauenfeld 

Kaiserliche  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,  Wieii 

Regia  Societas  Scientiarum  Bohemica,  Prague 

The  Royal  Hungarian  Society  of  Natural  Sciences,  Budapest 

The  Transylvanian  Museum  Society,  Kolszvar 

La  Socie'te'  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Geneve,  Suisse 

L  'Akademie  de  Me"decine,  Paris 

Soci6te  Linnee"nne  de  Normandie,  Caen 

Socie'te'  des  Amis  des  Sciences  de  Rouen,  Rouen 

Socie'te  G6ologique  du  Nord,  Lille 

University  de  Lyon,  Lyons 

La  Socie'tS  des  Sciences  de  Nancy,  Nancy 

Socie'te'  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Toulouse,  Toulouse 

Real  Academia  de  Ciencias  Exactas,  Fisicas  y  Naturales,  Madrid 

Specula  Vaticana,  Rome 

The  Royal  Linnaean  Academy,  Rome 

The  Australian  Museum,  Sydney 

Koninklijke  Natuur  Kundige  Vereeniging  in  "  Nederlandsch-Indie,"  Weltevreden 
(Batavia) 

Royal  Society  of  Canada,  Ottawa 

Ottawa  Field  Naturalists'  Club,  Ottawa 

Entomological  Society  of  Ontario,  Toronto 

Sociedad  Cientifica  "Antonio  Alzate,"  Mexic* 

The  Botanical  Garden,  Rio  de  Janeiro 

Museu  Nacional  do  Rio  de  Janeiro 


Honorary  Members 

Sir  Archibald  Geikie,  London  Professor  Charles  Barrois,  Lille 

Sir  James  Dewar,  London  Prof.  Dr.  F.  Leydig,  Rothenburg 

Dr.  Hans  Reusch,  Kristiania  Professor  Edward  S.  Dana,  New  Haven 

Professor  Hugo  de  Vries,  Amsterdam  Dr.  H.  R.  Storer,  Newport 

Professor  A.  A.  W.  Hubrecht,  Utrecht  Professor  A.  E.  Brown 

Prof.  Dr.  Karl  von  den  Steinen,  Berlin  Professor  George  Macloskie,  Princeton 

Prof.  Dr.  Wilhelm  Pfeffer,  Leipzig  Professor  Edward  L.  Berthoud,  Boulder, 

Prof.  Dr.  H.  Rosenbusch,  Heidelberg  Colorado 


Domestic  Societies 

Portland  Society  of  Natural  History,  Portland,  Me. 
Natural  History  Club  of  West  Newbury,  West  Newbury,  Mass. 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  Boston,  Mass.  (Delegate) 
Boston  Scientific  Society,  Boston,  Mass.  (Delegate) 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  Boston,  Mass. 


8  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  Cambridge,  Mass.  (Delegate) 
Newport  Natural  History  Society,  Newport,  R.I. 
American  Journal  of  Science,  New  Haven,  Conn.  (Delegate) 
Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  New  Haven,  Conn.  (Delegate) 
New  York  State  Museum,  Albany,  N.Y. 
Linnsean  Society  of  New  York,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Botanical  Garden,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
Torrey  Botanical  Club,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Entomological  Society,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Microscopical  Society,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Historical  Society,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Zoological  Society,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society.  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
American  Institute  of  the  City  of  New  York,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
Medico  Legal  Society  of  New  York,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
United  Swedish  Societies  of  New  York,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  New  York,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
Staten  Island  Association  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  New  Brighton,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 
New  York  State  Education  Department,  Science  Division,  Albany,  N.Y.  (Dele- 
gate) 

Buffalo  Society  of  Natural  Sciences,  Buffalo,  N.Y.  (Delegate) 

Stevens  Institute  of  Technology,  Hoboken,  N.J. 

Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  (Delegate) 

American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  (Delegate) 

American  Entomological  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  (Delegate) 

Zoological  Society  of  Philadelphia,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  (Delegate) 

Carnegie  Museum,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  (Delegate) 

Natural  History  Society  of  Delaware,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Maryland  Scientific  Society,  Baltimore,  Md.  (Delegate) 

National  Academy  of  Sciences,  Washington,  D.C.  (Delegate) 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington,  D.C.  (Delegate) 

Biological  Society  of  Washington,  Washington,  D.C.  (Delegate) 

Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.C.  (Delegate) 

Philosophical  Society  of  Washington,  Washington,  D.C.  (Delegate) 

Ohio  Academy  of  Science,  Gambier,  O.  (Delegate) 

Indiana  Academy  of  Sciences,  Bloomington,  Ind.  (Delegate) 

Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences,  Arts  and  Letters,  Madison,  Wis. 

St.  Paul  Academy  of  Science,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Academy  of  Science  of  St.  Louis,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Colorado  Scientific  Society,  Denver,  Col.  (Delegate) 

The  audience  then  listened  to  the  following  address. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  9 

LINNAEUS  AS  A  ZOOLOGIST. 
By  J.  A.  ALLEN,  PH.  D. 

Carolus  Linnaeus,  later  known  as  Carl  von  Linn6,  was  bora  at  Ra- 
shult,  in  the  province  of  Smaland,  Sweden,  May  13,  O.S.,  1707,  and  died 
at  Hammerby,  near  Upsala,  on  Jan.  10,  1778.  His  grandfather  was  a 
farmer;  his  father,  a  clergyman.  Young  Linnseus,  the  future  naturalist, 
was  intended  by  his  parents  for  the  ministry,  and  his  early  education 
was  conducted  with  this  end  in  view.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  sent  to  the 
Latin  School  at  Wexio,  but  after  seven  years  at  this  school  he  was  found  to 
be  so  deficient  in  his  scholastic  studies  that  his  parents  thought  of  apprenti- 
cing him  to  a  shoemaker. 

While  at  Wexio,  much  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  plants  and 
insects,  an  inclination  apparently  favored  by  his  master,  who  was  himself 
greatly  interested  in  botany.  Fortunately  young  Linnseus  was  rescued 
from  his  threatened  degradation  by  Dr.  John  Rothman,  a  physician  of 
Wexio,  who  recognized  his  superior  abilities,  and  appreciated  his  interest  in 
natural  history.  He  took  him  into  his  own  home,  where  for  a  year  Linnseus 
continued  his  botanical  studies,  aided  by  the  advice  and  library  of  his  patron. 
At  the  age  of  twenty  he  entered  the  University  of  Lund,  where  he  soon  found 
himself  without  means  of  support,  through  the  death  of  his  patron  and  friend, 
the  kind-hearted  physician  of  Wexio.  Fortunately  he  soon  won  the  friend- 
ship of  Dr.  Kilian  Stobseus,  the  professor  of  botany  and  medicine,  who 
made  him  a  member  of  his  family.  Here  he  had  access  to  books  and  to  a 
small  museum  of  natural  history,  and  found  much  leisure  for  exploring  the 
neighboring  country  and  for  collecting  objects  of  natural  history.  At  the 
end  of  a  year  he  went  to  Upsala,  where,  under  Rudbeck  and  Roberg,  he 
advanced  rapidly  in  medicine  and  botany.  Here  he  won  the  friendship  of 
the  renowned  Olaf  Celsius,  whom  he  later  characterized  as  the  best  botanist 
in  Sweden,  and  of  Artedi,  a  fellow-student,  who  afterwards  became  the 
founder  of  ichthyology.  During  his  whole  course  at  Upsala,  it  is  said  that 
he  did  not  hear  a  single  public  lecture  on  either  anatomy,  botany  or  chem- 
istry, but  he  and  Artedi,  in  good-tempered  rivalry,  were  devoting  their  ener- 
gies to  natural  history, —  Linnseus  to  plants,  birds  and  insects,  and  Artedi  to 
amphibia  and  fishes.  Linnaeus  here  also  began  the  preparation  of  his 
epoch-making  works  on  botany  and  of  the  first  edition  of  his  "  Systema 
Natures,"  published  a  few  years  later  in  Holland. 

In  1732,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  he  was  commissioned  by  the 
Upsala  Academy  of  Sciences  to  make  a  tour  of  exploration  in  Lapland  in  the 


10  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

interest  of  natural  history.  He  left  Upsala  on  the  12th  of  May,  and  after 
an  absence  of  five  months  returned  to  Upsala  on  the  10th  of  October. 
This  remarkable  journey  of  4600  miles  was  made  partly  on  horseback, 
partly  by  boat,  and  partly  on  foot;  it  extended  northwestward  across  the 
Norwegian  Alps  to  the  coast  of  Norway  beyond  the  Arctic  Circle;  the 
return  journey  was  made  by  way  of  eastern  Finland  It  was  an  undertaking 
of  great  hardship  and  much  danger,  being  performed  alone,  aided  only  by 
local  guides  employed  to  conduct  the  way  from  one  point  to  another.  On 
his  return  a  report  of  his  journey  was  presented  to  the  Academy,  but  it 
remained  in  manuscript  until  translated  and  published  in  English  by  Dr. 
James  Edward  Smith,  the  first  president  of  the  Linnsean  Society  of  Ixmdon, 
in  181 1.1  The  botanical  results,  however,  were  published  separately  by 
Linnaeus  himself,  in  1737. 

The  following  year  was  spent  at  Upsala,  where  he  attempted  to  eke  out 
his  scanty  means  of  support  by  giving  lectures  on  botany,  mineralogy  and 
chemistry.  This  proved  contrary  to  one  of  the  statutes  of  the  university, 
to  the  effect  that  no  one  should  give  public  lectures  who  had  not  obtained 
his  doctor's  degree,  which  statute  was  invoked  against  him  by  Rosen,  the 
successor  to  Rudbeck  in  the  professorship  of  medicine  and  anatomy,  who 
was  jealous  of  Linnseus's  abilities  and  attainments.  Deprived  of  this 
financial  resource,  he  took  some  of  his  pupils  on  excursions  into  the  neighbor- 
ing mountains,  where  he  met  the  governor  of  the  province  of  Dalecarlia, 
who  sent  him  to  explore  and  report  on  certain  copper  mines  in  which  he  was 
interested.  While  on  this  journey  he  gave  lectures  at  Falun  on  mineralogy 
and  assaying.  Here  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Morseus  (a  learned 
and  wealthy  physician  of  the  district)  and  his  two  daughters,  to  one  of  whom 
he  became  betrothed;  the  father,  however,  insisted  on  deferring  the  marriage 
till  Linnaeus  had  completed  his  professional  studies  and  obtained  his  medical 
degree.  For  this  purpose,  in  the  spring  of  1735,  he  journeyed  to  Lubeck 
and  Hamburg,  and  later  to  Holland,  where,  in  June,  he  received  from 
the  University  of  Harderwijk  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine.  At 
Leyden  he  became  acquainted  with  the  leading  men  of  science  of  that  city, 
which  soon  led  to  his  engagement  by  Dr.  George  Cliffort,  a  wealthy  burgo- 
master of  Amsterdam,  to  take  charge,  at  a  liberal  salary,  of  his  extensive 


1  The  herbaria,  library  (about  2500  volumes),  manuscripts  and  correspondence  of  Linnaeus, 
were  offered  by  his  widow  and  daughters,  "by  the  advice  of  friends,"  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
"for  the  sum  of  a  thousand  guineas."  Sir  Joseph,  not  feeling  inclined  to  the  purchase,  recom- 
mended it  to  the  consideration  of  his  friend,  Dr.  (later  Sir)  J.  E.  Smith,  by  whom  these  treas- 
ures were  secured,  and  transferred  to  England  (TURTON,  Lije  and  Writings  of  Linnaeus,  1806, 
p.  [39]),  and  later  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Linnaean  Society  of  London,  founded  in 
1788  through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Smith,  who  was  its  first  president.  (See  JAROINE'S  Natural- 
ist's Library,  Vol.  I,  1833,  p.  58.) 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  11 

museum  and  botanic  garden.  Later  he  was  sent  by  him  to  England  to 
secure  rare  plants  for  his  garden,  with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  great 
Boerhaave  to  Sir  Hans  Sloane.  He  thus  came  in  contact  with  the  botanists 
of  London,  where,  however,  his  reception  was  not  always  cordial. 

On  his  return  to  Holland  he  was  offered  the  position  of  government 
physician  to  the  Dutch  colony  in  Surinam,  which  he  prudently  declined, 
and  became  an  assistant  to  his  friend  Van  Royen  at  the  botanic  garden  in 
Leyden.  After  a  brief  visit  to  Paris  he  returned  to  Stockholm  in  September, 
1738,  where  he  determined  to  settle  as  a  physician.  Notwithstanding  his 
fame  abroad  and  his  skill  as  a  botanist,  the  pecuniary  returns  from  his 
profession  were  at  first  small,  but  they  gradually  increased;  and,  obtaining 
some  government  patronage,  his  marriage  to  Miss  Morseus  was  celebrated 
on  June  26,  1739. 

He  remained  only  three  years  in  Stockholm,  during  which  period  he 
helped  to  found  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of  that  city,  and  served  as 
its  first  president.  In  1741,  under  an  order  from  the  government,  he  made 
a  journey  through  Oland  and  Gothland.  In  the  same  year  he  was  called 
to  the  chair  of  botany  at  the  University  of  Upsala,  a  position  to  which  he 
had  long  aspired,  and  which  he  filled  for  thirty  years,  when  impaired  health 
compelled  him  to  resign  his  official  duties  and  to  discontinue  his  literary 
labors.  The  University  of  Upsala,  through  the  fame  of  Linnaeus,  became 
widely  renowned  as  a  seat  of  learning,  and  attracted  students  from  various 
parts  of  Europe.  During  these  years  of  almost  uninterrupted  activity,  most 
of  LinnasuVs  numerous  botanical  and  other  works  were  published,  the 
material  for  which  reached  him  in  ever-increasing  abundance,  not  only  from 
distant  parts  of  Europe,  but  from  Siberia,  China,  India,  Egypt,  South  Africa 
and  North  and  South  America. 

Academic  honors  were  showered  upon  him  by  all  the  learned  societies  of 
Europe;  a  gold  medal  was  struck  in  his  honor  by  the  nobles  of  Sweden; 
and  in  1757  he  was  created  by  King  Frederic  a  Knight  of  the  Polar  Star,  and 
admitted  to  hereditary  nobility.  Foreign  courts  made  overtures  for  his 
presence,  and  his  own  country  neglected  no  opportunity  to  do  him  honor. 
His  death  in  1778,  after  six  years  of  invalidism  resulting  from  an  attack  of 
apoplexy,  was  recognized  as  a  national  calamity;  the  University  of  Upsala 
went  into  mourning,  and  the  King  ordered  a  medal  to  be  struck  in  his 
memory. 

Although  cramped  by  poverty  during  the  earlier  part  of  his  career,  pros- 
perity did  not  long  withhold  her  smile.  Not  only  were  the  nobles  of  his 
country  his  patrons,  but  he  was  an  especial  favorite  of  both  King  Frederic 
and  his  queen.  Through  various  emoluments  showered  upon  him,  he  was 
able,  later  in  life,  to  purchase  a  large  estate  and  to  construct  for  himself  a 


12  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

museum,  wherein  he  gathered  the  largest  collection  of  botanical  treasures 
that  at  that  time  had  anywhere  been  brought  together.  He  was  happy  in 
his  domestic  relations,  and  lived  to  see  his  son  succeed  to  his  chair  at  the 
University  of  Upsala. 

Although  Linnseus's  publications  relate  mainly  to  botany  and  medicine, 
they  cover  the  whole  realm  of  natural  history.  His  earliest  contribution  to 
science  is  generally  considered  to  be  his  "  Florula  Lapponica,"  the  first  part 
of  which  appeared  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Swedish  Academy  in  1732.1 
This  was  followed  by  the  first  edition  of  his  "  Systema  Naturae,"  published 
in  Leyden  in  1735.  The  "  Fundamenta  Botanica  "  followed  in  1736,  and 
was  later  enlarged  and  republished  as  the  "  Philosophia  Botanica,"  in  1751. 
During  the  next  ten  years  various  other  botanical  publications  appeared  in 
rapid  succession.  His  "  Fauna  Suecica,"  published  in  1746,  was  his  first 
special  work  relating  to  zoology.  It  is  also  notable  as  being  the  first  work 
especially  devoted  to  the  entire  fauna  of  any  country.  It  was  republished, 
with  many  additions,  in  1761.  Other  botanical  and  several  medical  works 
followed  during  the  next  seven  years,  including  his  monumental  "  Species 
Plantarum,"  published  in  1753.  In  the  same  year  also  appeared  the  "  Mu- 
seum Tessianum,"  consisting  chiefly  of  descriptions  of  minerals  and  fossils, 
the  latter  mainly  shells  and  corals,  and  in  1754  the  "Museum  Adolphi 
Friderici,"  relating  exclusively  to  exotic  animals.  This  was  a  folio  with 
thirty-three  plates,  the  most  extensive  and  most  elaborately  illustrated  of 
all  of  Linnaeus's  works.  Two  important  medical  works  appeared  in  1760, 
and  his  third  zoological  work,  the  "  Museum  Ludoviciae  Ulricae,"  in  1764, 
a  thick  octavo,  to  which  was  annexed  the  second  part  of  the  "Museum 
Adolphi  Friderici." 

During  these  thirty  years  of  marvelous  scientific  activity,  Linnaeus  also 
contributed  many  papers  to  the  Transactions  of  the  Upsala  and  Stockholm 
academies  and  to  the  "Amoenitates  Academici."  The  latter,  in  ten  octavo 
volumes,  consist  of  dissertations  or  academical  theses,  mostly  by  his  students, 
selected,  edited  and  published  by  him,  and  thus  may  be  regarded  as  of  equal 
authority  with  his  own  writings.  Seven  of  these  volumes  were  published 
during  his  lifetime,  and  contain  a  number  of  his  own  minor  papers. 

This  brief  outline  of  Linnseus's  life,  his  opportunities,  and  the  published 
results  of  his  scientific  labors,  affords  the  basis  for  the  consideration  of 
Linnaeus  as  a  zoologist.  As  has  been  shown,  he  was  primarily  a  botanist; 
he  was  also  a  mineralogist,  an  entomologist  and  a  conchologist,  but  only 
incidentally  a  vertebrate  zoologist.  In  this  field  his  interest  was  less  strong, 
his  opportunities  for  research  the  most  restricted.  His  zoological  writings, 

1  His  Hortus  Uplandicus  is  said  to  have  appeared  one  year  earlier.  See  List  of  the  Works 
of  Limueus,  in  Jardine's  Naturalist's  Library,  Vol.  I,  1833,  p.  xvii,  footnote. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  13 

exclusive  of  a  few  minor  papers,  are  comprised  in  the  "Fauna  Suecica,"  the 
"Museum  Adolphi  Friderici," the  " Museum  Ludovicise  Ulricae "  and  the 
several  editions  of  his  "  Systema  Naturae."  The  first  edition,  appearing  in 
1735,  was  a  folio  of  only  12  pages,  consisting  merely  of  a  conspectus  of  his 
Systema  in  tabular  form.  The  second  edition,  published  in  1740,  was 
an  octavo  of  40  pages,  in  which  were  added,  for  the  animal  kingdom,  the 
characters  of  the  groups.  The  sixth,  published  in  1748,  was  greatly  en- 
larged, the  zoological  part  alone  consisting  of  76  pages,  illustrated  with  six 
plates,  or  one  for  each  of  his  six  classes  of  animals.  The  tenth,  published 
in  1758,  was  in  two  octavo  volumes,  of  which  the  zoology  formed  the  first 
volume,  consisting  of  824  pages.  The  twelfth,  and  the  last  edition  revised 
by  the  author,  was  issued  in  three  volumes,  the  first  of  which,  containing 
the  zoology  and  comprising  1427  pages,  appeared  in  1766.  Thus  in 
thirty-three  years  this  work  grew  from  a  brochure  of  12  pages  to  a  work 
of  2400  pages. 

The  first  edition  of  the  Systema  was  published  when  the  author  was 
only  twenty-eight  years  old,  during  his  sojourn  in  Holland.  He  had  never 
previously  been  beyond  the  confines  of  southern  Sweden,  except  on  his 
journey  to  Lapland  and  Finland  in  1732,  and  he  had  had  access  to  no  large 
collection  of  animals.  Thus  his  resources  for  such  an  important  undertak- 
ing were  extremely  limited,  being  restricted  to  his  own  considerable  first- 
hand knowledge  of  the  fauna  of  Sweden,  to  the  few  specimens  of  exotic 
animals  he  had  been  able  to  see  in  Lund,  Upsala  and  Stockholm,  and  to  the 
scanty  literature  of  the  subject  there  available.  When  the  second  edition 
appeared,  in  1740,  he  had  spent  less  than  three  years  and  a  half  in  foreign 
countries,  mainly  in  Holland  with  single  brief  visits  to  London  and  Paris; 
but  his  interests  on  these  occasions  were  botanical  and  not  zoological. 

The  sixth  edition  (the  third  revised  by  the  author),  published  in  1748, 
was  in  effect  a  synopsis  of  the  fauna  of  Sweden,  filled  in,  as  regards  the  fauna 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  by  compilations  from  his  predecessors.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem,  outside  of  the  tropical  genera  Simia,  Bradypus,  Dasypus, 
Myrmecophaga  and  Manis,  this  edition  enumerates  only  thirteen  species  of 
mammals  not  found  in  Sweden.  Only  140  are  recorded  for  his  whole  class 
Animalium  quadrupedium,  one-third  of  which  are  Scandinavian. 

This  analysis  could  be  extended  to  other  classes  with  practically  similar 
results.  The  class  Insecta,  for  example,  includes  only  thirteen  species  that 
are  not  also  recorded  in  the  "Fauna  Suecica,"  showing  how  limited  was  his 
knowledge  of  the  world's  fauna  at  1748. 

The  tenth  edition  (the  fourth  revised  by  the  author),  published  in  1758, 
is  the  epoch-making  work  in  the  history  of  zoology,  as  in  this  the  binomial 
system  of  nomenclature  for  the  whole  animal  kingdom  is  introduced  for  the 


14  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

first  time.  The  work  is  also  greatly  enlarged,  and  the  classification  greatly 
improved,  especially  that  of  the  mammals,  which  class  is  now  for  the  first 
time  aptlv  designated  Mammalia.  The  ordinal  term  Primates  is  substituted 
for  Anthropomorpha  of  the  sixth  and  previous  edition,  the  sloths  (genus 
Bradypus)  are  removed  from  it,  the  genus  Lemur  is  added  as  a  new  genus, 
and  the  bats  are  transferred  to  it  from  the  Ferae.  A  new  order,  Bruta,  is 
made  up  of  his  former  third  order  Agrise  (now  suppressed)  and  of  such  other 
extremely  heterogeneous  elements  as  the  elephant,  the  manatee,  sloths, 
ant-eaters  and  the  scaly  ant-eaters.  The  order  Ferae  consists  of  six  properly 
associated  genera;  the  armadillos,  insectivores  and  bats,  formerly  included 
in  it,  being  removed  elsewhere.  His  fourth  order,  Bestiae,  is  a  new  group, 
composed  of  the  pigs,  armadillos,  opossums  and  insectivores.  The  fifth 
order,  Glires,  is  a  natural  group,  except  for  the  inclusion  of  the  genus  Rhino- 
ceros, now  most  strangely  placed  with  the  squirrels  and  mice.  His  sixth 
order,  Pecora,  is  retained  as  in  the  previous  editions,  and  is  also  a  natural 
group.  The  seventh,  Belluae,  is  a  new  ordinal  group,  consisting  of  the 
genera  Equus  and  Hippopotamus,  transferred  from  the  here  disrupted  order 
Jumenta  of  previous  editions.  The  Cete,  now  removed  by  him  from  the 
fishes,  form  his  eighth  and  last  order.  This  reconstruction  of  the  ordinal 
groups  is  a  great  improvement:  five  new  genera  are  added,  two  old  ones 
eliminated,  and  the  number  of  species  is  increased  from  140  to  185.  In 
some  of  the  other  classes  there  are  similar  radical  changes,  but  there  is  not 
time  to  refer  to  them. 

The  twelfth,  and  the  last  edition  revised  by  the  author,  published  in  1766, 
shows  many  improvements  over  the  tenth.  It  is  greatly  increased  in  bulk 
through  the  addition  of  many  new  genera  and  a  large  number  of  new  species. 
The  classification  is  also  judiciously  modified  at  many  points.  Taking 
again  the  class  of  mammals  for  illustration,  the  number  of  orders  is  reduced 
from  eight  to  seven,  through  the  suppression  of  the  grossly  unnatural  order 
Bestiae  and  the  transference  of  its  genera  to  other  associations,  with,  however, 
the  retrograde  change  of  placing  the  insectivores  and  the  genus  Didelphis 
among  the  Ferae.  The  Glires  is  modified  by  the  removal  of  the  genus 
Rhinoceros  to  the  order  Belluae  and  the  addition  to  it  of  Noctilio,  a  genus 
of  bats.  The  order  Bruta  is  the  same  incongruous  association  of  elephants, 
manatees,  sloths  and  ant-eaters  as  in  the  tenth  edition. 

The  orders  of  mammals  as  now  left  correspond  in  several  instances 
very  nearly  with  those  of  our  modern  systems,  notably  the  Primates,  Glires, 
Pecora  and  Cete.  The  Ferae  of  the  tenth  edition  corresponds  to  the  modern 
Carnivora,  but  in  the  twelfth  he  made  the  mistake  of  putting  back  into  it 
the  marsupials  and  the  insectivores.  His  order  Belluae  being  essentially 
the  modern  suborder  Perissodactyla,  his  order  Bmta  is  the  only  grossly 
incongruous  association  of  types. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMVS  15 

The  only  previous  classification  of  mammals  with  which  Linnaeus's 
need  to  be  compared  is  Ray's,  published  in  1693,  whose  system,  taken  as  a 
whole,  is  far  more  artificial  than  Linnaeus's.  Naturally  there  are  some 
striking  coincidences  of  grouping,  and  in  the  characters  employed  by  the 
two  authors.  As  to  the  latter,  Ray  so  well  covered  the  field  that  there  was 
little  left  for  Linnaeus  to  add,  since  during  the  interval  between  Ray  and 
Linnaeus  not  much  was  learned  about  the  anatomy  and  relations  of  the 
ordinal  groups  of  mammals.  Doubtless  Linnaeus  was  influenced,  in  his 
removal  of  the  cetaceans  from  the  fish  to  the  mammal  class,  by  the  systems 
of  his  contemporaries,  Klein  (1751)  and  Brisson  (1756),  in  which  respect 
only  are  their  systems  better  or  less  artificial  than  his.  Inasmuch,  however, 
as  Brisson  divided  mammals  into  eighteen  orders  instead  of  seven,  he 
escaped  some  of  the  grotesque  combinations  made  by  Linnaeus:  on  the 
other  hand,  he  gave  undue  emphasis  to  relatively  unimportant  differences. 

Linnseus's  classification  of  birds  is  closely  modeled  upon  that  of  Ray, 
and  his  departures  from  it  are  seldom  improvements.  His  lack  of  knowledge 
of  ornithology  is  strikingly  apparent  through  his  repeated  association  of 
very  unlike  species  in  the  same  genus,  as  where  a  penguin  is  combined  with 
a  tropic  bird  to  form  his  genus  Phaetkon,  and  another  species  of  penguin 
with  an  albatross  to  form  his  genus  Diomedea.  In  the  tenth  edition  he 
recorded  only  about  550  species  of  birds;  in  the  twelfth,  this  number  was 
raised  to  nearly  a  thousand,  mainly  on  the  basis  of  Brisson's  great  work, 
which  appeared  in  1760.  The  greater  part  were  based  on  the  writings  of 
previous  authors ;  probably  less  than  one-fourth  of  them  being  known  to  him 
from  specimens. 

His  class  Amphibia  contained  four  orders,  of  which  the  fourth  consisted 
of  cartilaginous  and  other  wholly  unrelated  fishes,  and  shows  how  slight 
was  his  acquaintance  with  the  lower  classes  of  vertebrates.  His  first  order, 
Reptilia,  includes  such  diverse  animals  as  turtles,  lizards,  salamanders, 
frogs  and  toads.  The  snakes  formed  his  second  order,  Serpentes. 

His  arrangement  of  the  fishes  was  originally  based  on  that  of  Artedi, 
whose  "  Ichthyologia  "  Linnaeus  published  while  sojourning  in  Holland,  in 
1738,  after  Artedi's  untimely  death  by  accidental  drowning. 

His  class  Insecta  is  nearly  equivalent  to  the  modern  subphylum  Arthro- 
poda,  as  it  includes  the  Arachnida  and  the  Crustacea. 

His  class  Vermes  was  the  waste-basket  of  his  system,  including  all  the 
forms  of  animal  life  that  were  neither  vertebrates  nor  insects,  which  he  dis- 
tributed into  five  orders,  some  of  them  as  heterogeneous  in  character  as  the 
class  itself.  The  second  order,  Mollusca,  comprised  all  sorts  of  soft-bodied 
animals,  mostly  marine,  as  slugs,  sea-anemones,  ascidians,  holothurians, 
cuttle-fishes,  star-fishes,  sea-urchins  and  jelly-fishes.  The  animals  now  com- 
monly known  as  Mollusca  formed  his  third  order,  Testacea. 


16  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

It  is  not,  however,  just  to  judge  Linnaeus's  work  by  the  standards  of 
to-day.  The  above  comparison  of  the  zoological  part  of  the  "  Systema 
Naturae"  with  our  present  knowledge  of  animals  is  not  to  be  taken  as  a 
disparagement:  we  merely  note  the  progress  of  zoology  during  the  last 
century  and  a  half  of  the  world's  history.  Linnaeus  was  a  born  systematist ; 
his  energy  and  industry  were  enormous;  his  isolation  promoted  independence 
and  originality.  He  devised  new  classifications,  and  thoroughly  systema- 
tized not  only  the  knowledge  of  his  predecessors,  but  the  vast  increment 
he  himself  added.  He  inspired  his  students  with  his  own  enthusiasm, 
taught  them  his  own  advanced  methods,  and  influenced  a  goodly  number 
of  them  to  undertake  natural  history  explorations  in  distant  and  zoologically 
unknown  parts  of  the  world. 

In  special  lines  of  research  he  was  far  behind  several  of  his  contempo- 
raries, notably  Brisson,  in  respect  to  both  mammals  and  birds.  But  he 
nearly  doubled  the  number  of  known  forms  of  reptiles,  amphibians  and 
fishes,  and  increased  many  fold  the  number  of  species  of  Ccelenterates,  on 
the  basis  of  wholly  new  material  gathered  through  his  own  efforts. 

Disgusted  with  the  needlessly  detailed  accounts  and  repetitions  that 
characterized  the  writings  of  most  of  his  predecessors,  he  unfortunately 
adopted  the  extreme  of  condensation,  thereby  adding  greatly  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  his  successors  in  determining  to  just  what  forms  the  thousands  of 
new  names  he  introduced  really  belonged.  Many  of  his  species,  based  on 
the  accounts  given  by  previous  authors,  were  also  composite,  often  con- 
taining very  diverse  elements.  But  this  detracts  little  from  his  credit.  As 
one  of  his  appreciative  biographers  has  tersely  put  it,  "He  found  biology  a 
chaos;  he  left  it  a  cosmos." 

Linnaeus's  beneficent  influence  upon  biology  was  hardly  less  as  a  nomen- 
clator  than  as  a  taxonomist.  He  not  only  invented  a  descriptive  terminology 
for  animals  and  plants,  but  devised  a  system  of  nomenclature  at  once  simple 
and  efficient,  and  which  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  has  been  accepted 
without  essential  modification. 

Linnaeus  divided  the  three  kingdoms  of  nature  into  classes,  the  classes 
into  orders,  the  orders  into  genera,  the  genera  into  species,  under  which 
latter  he  sometimes  recognized  varieties.  Of  these  groups,  as  he  understood 
them,  he  gave  clear  definitions,  but  they  were  in  most  cases  much  more 
comprehensive  than  the  limits  now  assigned  to  groups  of  corresponding 
rank.  His  genera  correspond  in  some  cases  to  groups  now  termed  orders, 
and  frequently  to  the  modern  idea  of  family;  in  some  cases  they  contained 
species  now  placed  in  separate  orders.  Prior  to  Linnaeus,  these  groups  had 
less  definite  significance,  and  were  often  designated  by  a  phrase  instead 
of  a  single  word.  Species  were  indicated  only  by  a  cumbersome  diagnosis 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  17 

intended  to  express  their  chief  distinctive  characters.  For  this,  Linnaeus 
substituted  a  single  word,  an  innovation  the  merits  of  which  were  at  once 
almost  universally  recognized.  But  Linnaeus  reached  this  solution  of  a 
grave  inconvenience  somewhat  slowly,  and  not  till  1753  did  he  fully  adopt 
the  nomen  triviale,  when  he  introduced  it  into  botany  in  his  "  Species  Plan- 
tarum,"  which  is  taken  by  botanists  as  the  point  of  departure  for  the  bino- 
mial system.  In  the  following  year,  1754,  he  introduced  it  into  zoology, 
using  it  throughout  his  "Museum  Adolphi  Friderici"  for  all  the  animals 
catalogued  or  described  in  this  superb  work;  namely,  39  species  of  mammals, 
23  of  birds,  90  of  reptiles  and  amphibians,  91  of  fishes  and  64  of  invertebrates, 
or  for  an  aggregate  of  307  species  of  animals.  Four  years  later,  in  the 
tenth  or  1758  edition  of  his  "  Systema  Naturae,"  he  adopted  it  for  the  whole 
animal  kingdom,  which  date  is  now  generally  taken  as  the  beginning  of  the 
binomial  system  for  zoology.  The  importance  and  utility  of  this  simple 
innovation  in  a  matter  of  nomenclature  are  beyond  estimate,  and  if  Linnaeus 
had  done  nothing  else  for  the  advancement  of  biology,  he  would  be  entitled 
to  a  conspicuous  niche  in  the  temple  of  fame  and  to  the  gratitude  of  all  sub- 
sequent workers  in  this  field.  He  for  the  first  time  gave  technical  standing 
to  the  systematic  names,  both  generic  and  specific,  of  all  the  plants  and  ani- 
mals known  at  the  dates  when  he  introduced  the  nomen  triviale  into  the 
nomenclature  of  botany  and  zoology. 

It  is  of  interest  in  this  connection  to  note  the  number  of  species  of  animals 
known  to  Linnaeus  at  the  date  of  publication  of  the  last  edition  of  the  "  Sys- 
tema Naturae,"  —  the  number  known  to  him  personally,  and  the  number 
recorded  respectively  from  North  America  and  from  South  America. 

Of  mammals,  the  whole  number  of  species  recorded  is  190,  of  which  three- 
fourths  are  based  on  the  descriptions  of  previous  authors.  Only  48  were 
American, —  12  from  North  America  and  36  from  South  America.  The 
5  North  American  mammals  known  to  Linnaeus  from  specimens  were  the 
raccoon,  star-nosed  mole,  common  mole,  flying  squirrel  and  chipmunk. 
The  number  of  species  at  present  known  from  North  America  is  600,  ex- 
cluding subspecies.  The  number  for  the  world,  including  the  extinct  as 
well  as  the  living,  is  about  10,000  as  against  less  than  200  recorded  by 
Linnaeus. 

Of  birds,  about  925  are  recorded  of  the  15,000  known  to-day.  The  200 
known  from  America  are  divided  about  equally  between  North  America  and 
South  America,  only  50  of  which  were  described  from  specimens. 

The  amphibia  and  reptiles  number  collectively  about  250,  of  which  about 
one-third  are  American,  40  per  cent  of  the  latter  being  North  American 
and  60  per  cent  South  American.  The  North  American  include  3  sala- 
manders, the  box-turtle,  the  six-lined  lizard,  the  blue-tailed  lizard  and  14 


18  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

snakes.  The  greater  part  of  the  20  North  American  species  of  reptiles  and 
amphibians  known  to  him  personally  were  based  on  specimens  transmitted 
by  his  former  student,  Dr.  C.  D.  Garden,  from  the  Carolinas,  and  on  a  few 
sent  from  Pennsylvania  by  Pehr  Kalm,  also  one  of  his  students.  Thus  the 
greater  part  of  the  snakes  of  the  eastern  United  States  became  known  to 
Linnaeus  prior  to  1766. 

About  500  species  of  fishes  are  recorded,  of  which  100  are  American, 
divided  about  equally  between  North  and  South  America.  Forty  of  the 
nearly  60  North  American  species  described  are  based  on  specimens  sent 
from  the  Carolinas  by  Dr.  Garden,  the  others  mainly  on  specimens  in  the 
museum  of  King  Frederic. 

There  is  not  time  to  notice  in  detail  the  various  classes  of  Crelenterates. 
A  few  words  about  insects  will  serve  as  a  general  illustration  for  this  phylum. 
Linnaeus  recorded  about  2400  species,  the  greater  part  of  which  he  was  the 
first  to  describe;  about  300,000  are  now  recognized.  Of  the  insects 
knowrn  to  him,  65  per  cent  are  recorded  in  the  second  (1761)  edition  of  his 
"  Fauna  Sueccia,"  and  many  of  the  remainder  are  European,  so  that  his 
knowledge  of  exotic  species  was  exceedingly  restricted.  Of  Coleoptera  he 
recorded  about  800  species;  the  number  now  known  is  estimated  at  12,000. 
Of  Lepidoptera  he  recorded  about  800;  7000  are  now  known  from  North 
America  alone.  Of  Diptera  he  recorded  278  species,  of  which  200  were 
from  Sweden;  12,000  are  now  known  from  North  America. 

Linnaeus's  system  of  classification  was  based  on  a  few  external  characters, 
and  was  recognized  by  himself  as  artificial  and  provisional.  It  was  intended 
only  as  a  stepping-stone  to  better  things,  when  the  structure  and  affinities 
of  animals  should  become  better  known.  The  statistics  already  given  in- 
dicate how  limited  was  his  knowledge  of  the  world's  fauna;  his  classifica- 
tion of  animals  shows  how  little  he  knew  of  their  structure,  and  how  often  he 
was  misled  by  superficial  resemblances.  Yet  his  "Systema  Naturae"  was  the 
working  basis  of  all  naturalists  for  the  next  half-century.1  Twelve  editions 
were  published  during  his  lifetime,  and  it  was  later  translated  into  several 
of  the  continental  languages.  To  such  an  extent  was  it  regarded  as  final  by 
many  subsequent  naturalists  that,  when  his  groups  began  to  be  changed  and 
new  genera  interpolated,  it  was  deemed  by  some  of  them  little  less  than  sacri- 
lege. When  convenience  demanded  subdivision  of  the  larger  genera,  owing 
to  the  great  number  of  new  species  that  had  become  known  since  1766,  it 


1  Turton,  in  his  Life  and  Writings  of  Linne",  says,  "To  this  system  may  be  justly  applied 
the  nervous  observations  of  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  delineation  of  the  character  of  Shakespeare: 
'The  stream  of  time,  which  is  continually  washing  away  the  dissoluble  fabrics  of  other 
systems,  passes  without  injury  by  the  adamant  of  Linne".'" —  WILLIAM  TURTON:  A  General 
Syntem  oj  Nature.. .  by  Sir  Charles  Linne,  Vol.  VII,  1806,  p.  [42]. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  19 

was  quite  common  to  consider  the  new  groups  as  sections,  and  to  give  them 
merely  vernacular  names,  or,  if  their  authors  were  bold  enough  to  designate 
them  by  Latin  names,  they  were  commonly  called  subgenera. 

It  was  not  till  near  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  there  arose  a 
new  class  of  naturalists,  the  anatomical  school,  led  by  the  elder  Geoffrey 
and  G.  Cuvier,  who  studied  the  internal  structure  of  animals  as  well  as  their 
external  parts.  It  was,  however,  many  years  before  the  new  systems  began 
to  displace  or  greatly  to  modify  the  long-accepted  and  strongly  intrenched 
Linnsean  methods  of  grouping  animals. 

The  great  advance  in  biologic  knowledge  since  the  time  of  Linnaeus  can- 
not be  easily  measured;  it  can  be  suggested  by  noting  the  fact  that  compara- 
tive anatomy,  embryology,  histology,  paleontology,  evolutionism  and  many 
kindred  lines  of  research,  have  nearly  all  had  their  origin  or  principal  develop- 
ment within  the  last  century,  all  converging  for  the  solution  of  the  genetic 
relationships  of  animals  and  the  origin  of  life.  Linnaeus,  in  an  oration  deliv- 
ered in  1743,1  held  that  each  species  of  animal  originated  from  a  single  pair, 
citing  as  incontrovertible  proof  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation.  It  is 
indeed  a  long  look  back  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  his 
labors  marked  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  biology.  In  commemorating  to-day 
the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth,  we  honor  ourselves  by  showing 
our  esteem  for  the  greatest  naturalist  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

i  In  his  oration  De  telluris  habitabilis  incremento,  delivered  and  first  published  in  1743 
and  republished  in  1744,  and  again  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Amcenitates  Academicse,  in 
1751,  he  gives  his  reasons  for  believing  "that  at  the  beginning  to  the  world  there  was  created 
one  single  sexual  pair  of  every  species  of  living  thing. 

"To  the  proofs  of  this  proposition,"  he  continues,  "I  request  those  who  are  my  auditors  to 
lend  a  favorable  ear  and  willing  attention. 

"Our  holy  Faith  instructs  us  to  believe  that  the  Divinity  created  a  single  pair  of  the  human 
kind,  one  individual  male,  the  other  female.  The  sacred  writing  of  Moses  acquaint  us  that  they 
were  placed  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  that  Adam  there  gave  names  to  every  species  of  animal, 
God  causing  them  to  appear  before  him. 

"  By  a  sexual  pair  I  mean  one  male  and  one  female  in  every  species  where  the  individuals 
differ  in  sex."  —  J.  F.  BRAND'S  translation,  in  Select  Dissertations  from  the  Amcenitates  Aca- 
demicoe,  1781,  pp.  75,  76. 


20  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

The  following  address  was  prepared  for  the  celebration,  but  was  read 
only  by  title.  It  is  inserted  here  on  account  of  its  close  relations  with  the 
address  of  Dr.  Allen. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNJ3VS  21 


LINN^US  AS  AN  INTERMEDIARY  BETWEEN  ANCIENT  AND 

MODERN  ZOOLOGY;   HIS  VIEWS  ON  THE  CLASS 

MAMMALIA. 

By  W.  K.  GREGORY,  M.  A. 

In  connection  with  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Carl 
von  Linne,  or  Carolus  Linnaeus,  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  consider 
him  in  his  capacity  of  bridging  over  the  gap  between  ancient  and  medieval 
zoology  on  the  one  hand  and  modern  zoology  on  the  other,  and  further  to 
glance  at  the  principles  and  facts  upon  which  he  based  his  two  great  con- 
tributions to  the  broader  knowledge  of  the  class  of  which  man  is  the  domi- 
nating member.  For  this  purpose  the  history  of  zoology  may  be  divided, 
in  a  general  way,  into  seven  epochs:  the  Aristotelian,  the  Scholastic,  the 
Renaissance,  the  Raian,  the  Linnsean,  the  Cuvierian,  and  the  Darwinian. 
There  are  also  two  axioms  which  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind.  The 
first  is,  that  Linnseus  became  a  point  of  departure  in  the  history  of  modern 
biology,  only  because  he  was  in  turn  the  product  of  the  intersection  of  many 
important  historical  series  which  ramify  and  intertwine  indefinitely,  and 
stretch  back  into  the  remote  past  of  every  aspect  of  life.  The  second  axiom 
is,  that  every  new  idea,  or,  for  that  matter,  every  new  event,  is  the  fertile 
hybrid  resulting  from  the  fortuitous  crossing  of  several  specifically  distinct 
old  ideas  or  events. 

THE  ARISTOTELIAN  EPOCH. 

The  first  epoch  under  consideration  is  that  of  Aristotle,  of  the  fourth 
century  B.C.,  and  it  may  be  characterized  as  the  initial  analytical  epoch. 
Aristotle's  theory  of  the  genetic  relationship  of  the  chain  of  beings  from 
polyp  to  man  did  not,  of  course,  materially  influence  Linnseus.  The  idea 
of  evolution  was  not  destined  to  come  to  its  fruition  through  Aristotle,  the 
schoolmen,  or  even  in  Linnseus  or  Cuvier.  The  true  relation  of  Aristotle 
as  a  systematic  zoologist  to  Ray  and  Linnaeus  is  exhibited  in  the  following 
well-known  citations  from  "The  Parts  of  Animals." 

"  Some  animals  are  viviparous,  some  oviparous,  some  vermiparous.  The  vivipa- 
rous are  such  as  man  and  the  horse,  and  all  those  animals  which  have  hair;  and  of 
the  aquatic  animals,  the  whale  kind,  as  the  dolphin  and  cartilaginous  fishes  [in  refer- 
ence to  the  viviparity  of  certain  sharks]  (Book  I,  Chap.  V).  Of  quadrupeds  which 
have  blood  and  are  viviparous,  some  are  (as  to  their  extremities)  many-cloven,  as  the 
hands  and  feet  of  man.  For  some  are  many-toed,  as  the  lion,  the  dog,  the  panther; 
some  are  bifid,  and  have  hoofs  instead  of  nails,  as  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the  elephant. 


22  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

the  hippopotamus;  and  some  have  undivided  feet,  as  the  solid-hoofed  animals,  the 
horse  and  ass.  The  swine  kind  share  both  characters  [an  allusion  to  the  'mule 
footed'  swine,  monstrosities  in  which  the -median  digits  are  fused,  and  terminate  in  a 
solid  composite  hoof) "  (Book  II,  Chap.  V). 

Ray  and  later  writers  probably  had  this  passage  in  mind  when  they 
used  the  descriptive  terms  "multifido,"  "bifido,"  "solidungula,"  "ungulata," 
"unguiculata,"  fissipedes."  Here,  also,  attention  is  directed  to  the  feet  as 
exhibiting  characteristic  differences.  In  another  passage  Aristotle  says, — 

"  Animals  have  also  great  differences  in  the  teeth  both  when  compared  with  each 
other  and  with  man.  For  all  quadrupeds  which  have  blood  and  are  viviparous  have 
teeth.  And  in  the  first  place  some  are  ambidental1  (having  teeth  in  both  jaws); 
and  some  are  not  so,  wanting  the  front  teeth  in  the  upper  jaw.  Some  have  neither 
front  teeth  nor  horns,  as  the  camel;  some  have  tusks,2  as  the  boar;  some  have  not. 
Some  have  serrated  teeth,3  as  the  lion,  the  panther,  the  dog;  some  have  the  teeth 
unvaried,4  as  the  horse  and  the  ox;  for  the  animals  which  vary  their  cutting  teeth 
have  all  serrated  teeth.  No  animal  has  both  tusks  and  horns;  nor  has  any  animal 
with  serrated  teeth  either  of  those  weapons.  The  greater  part  have  the  front  teeth 
cutting,  and  those  within  broad  "  (Book  I,  Chap.  II). 

This  passage  evidently  directed  the  attention  of  later  writers  to  the 
importance  of  the  teeth  as  a  means  of  distinguishing  and  hence  of  classi- 
fying mammals,  and  we  shall  see  that  Ray  and,  later,  Linnaeus  were  quick 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  suggestion. 

Aristotle  was  quite  unconscious  of  the  classification  that  has  been  ascribed 
to  him,  as  Whewell5  shows;  but  "Aristotle  does  show,  as  far  as  could  be 
done  at  his  time,  a  perception  of  the  need  of  groups  and  of  names  of  groups 
in  the  study  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  thus  may  justly  be  held  up  as  the 
great  figure  in  the  prelude  to  the  formation  of  systems  which  took  place  in 
more  advanced  scientific  times."  Whewell  also  quotes  passages  that  show 
Aristotle's  recognition  of  the  lack  of  generic  names  to  denominate  natural 
groups.  Aristotle  says  that  "of  the  class  of  viviparous  quadrupeds  there 
are  many  genera,6  but  these  again  are  without  names,  except  specific  names, 
such  as  man,  lion,  stag,  horse,  dog  and  the  like.  Yet  there  is  a  genus  of 
animals  that  have  manes,  as  the  horse,  the  ass,  the  oreus,  the  yinnus,  the 
innus  and  the  animal  which  in  Syria  is  called  heminus  (mule)  .  .  .  Where- 
fore," he  adds  (that  is,  because  we  do  not  possess  genera  and  generic  names 
of  this  kind),  "we  must  take  the  species  separately  and  study  the  nature  of 
each."  "These  passages,"  Whewell  continues,  "afford  us  sufficient  ground 


2  XawXto'Sovra. 
AvciraXXoKra.  5  Op.  tit..  III.,  p.  350.  '  E(St) 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNJEVS  23 

for  placing  Aristotle  at  the  head  of  those  naturalists  to  whom  the  first  views  of 
the  necessity  of  a  zoological  system  are  due"  (Op.  cit.,  p.  352). 

THE  SCHOLASTIC  EPOCH. 

From  the  time  of  Aristotle  and  his  classical  successors  until  the  rise  of 
scholasticism  in  the  eleventh  century,  Europe,  as  every  one  knows,  was  too 
much  preoccupied  with  world-wide  displacements  and  readjustments  of 
peoples  and  of  institutions  to  pay  particular  attention  to  natural  science; 
and  even  the  Scholastic  Epoch  in  the  history  of  philosophy  and  science 
was  chiefly  occupied  with  the  further  development  and  systematization  of 
the  great  body  of  religious  and  metaphysical  doctrines.  So  far  as  natural 
history  is  concerned,  it  is  perhaps  rather  a  further  interregnum  than  an 
epoch,  rather  an  era  or  lapse  of  uneventful  time  than  a  time  of  the  slow 
ascension  of  some  great  illuminative  idea.  The  anthropocentric  idea  domi- 
nated in  natural  history  as  the  geocentric  idea  dominated  in  astronomy; 
hence  a  knowledge  of  the  real  or  supposed  properties  of  animals  and 
particularly  of  plants  was  chiefly  cultivated  in  connection  with  alchemy, 
magic  and  materia  medica.  The  medieval  imagination,  full  of  mysticism, 
eager  for  the  uncanny  and  fantastic  and  teeming  with  images  of  ubiquitous 
devils,  flourished  on  the  marvelous  tales  of  a  "Sir  John  Maundeville,"  and 
peopled  the  earth  with  the  monsters  which  so  long  survived  and  ramped 
in  the  Terrse  Incognita?  of  world  maps.  In  the  schools,  citations  from 
authorities  were  accepted  in  lieu  of  proof,  and  the  simple  zoology  of  Aristotle 
and  the  scriptures  was  deeply  covered  by  the  accretions  of  learned  exegesis. 

Scholasticism  reached  its  prime  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  in  the 
system  of  the  illustrious  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  "princeps  scholasticorum." 
Afterward,  while  the  renaissance  movement  was  discovering  new  worlds  in 
all  directions,  scholasticism  in  general  (but  with  some  brilliant  exceptions) 
rapidly  reached  the  "  phylogerontic  stage"  of  its  evolution,  and  produced  all 
sorts  of  bizarre  specializations  in  terminology  and  in  dialectics. 

It  has  been  said  of  the  scholastic  philosophy  that  it  "vigorously  exercised 
the  understanding  without  bringing  it  to  any  conclusions."  However  this 
may  be,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  very  excesses  of  scholasticism  stim- 
ulated the  reactive  return  to  experience,  which  gave  rise  incidentally  to 
biological  science.  The  schoolmen  furthermore  perpetuated  and  aroused 
interest  in  Aristotle's  analyses,  and  gave  currency  to  many  methods  of 
analysis  and  description.  Among  these  we  may  cite,  first,  the  dichotomous 
method  of  division,  which  is  a  forerunner  of  modern  classifications;  second, 
the  logical  concepts  of  genus  and  species.  Especially  noteworthy  was  the 
expansion  of  classical  Latin  into  a  highly  specialized  language  of  philosophy 
and  science. 


24  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


THE  RENAISSANCE  EPOCH. 

Biological  science,  and  especially  zoology,  did  not  respond  fully  to  the 
impulse  of  the  Renaissance  movement  until  literature,  politics,  astronomy 
and  geographical  discovery  had  made  the  most  signal  advances.  Hence  in 
Aldrovandi  (1522-1605)  and  Gesner  (1516-65)  the  superstitions  and  myths 
of  the  middle  ages  still  linger,  while  the  systematic  work  of  future  genera- 
tions is  initiated  in  the  extensive  illustrated  catalogues  and  descriptions  of 
plants  and  animals.  On  the  philosophical  side  of  zoology,  the  Englishman 
Wotton,  in  his  "De  Differentiis  Animalium"  (Paris,  1552),  "rejected  the 
legendary  and  fantastic  accretions  [of  medieval  zoology]  and  returned  to 
Aristotle  and  the  observation  of  nature"  (Lankester1).  One  of  the  con- 
temporaries of  Gesner  and  Wotton  was  the  founder  of  anatomy,  Andreas 
Vesalius  (1514-64),  who  boldly  broke  with  tradition,  and  declared  that  the 
source  of  knowledge  of  the  human  body  should  be,  not  Galen,  but  the 
human  body  itself. 

Near  the  end  of  this  period,  the  botanist,  Cesalpino  (Caesalpinus)  of 
Arezzo  (1519-1778),  a  celebrated  scholastic  philosopher,  published  his  volu- 
minous work  "De  Plantis"  (1583).  In  this  work,  which  was  inspired  by 
the  new  idea  of  direct  observation,  the  confused  arrangements  of  plants  of 
the  earlier  herbalists  were  replaced  by  an  orderly  classification  suggested 
by  the  brigades  of  an  army,  and  founded  upon  the  number,  the  position 
and  the  figure  of  the  reproductive  parts.  He  divided  plants  into  ten  great 
classes,  which  were  again  subdivided;  to  these  assemblages  he  gave  mono- 
mial names  in  substantive  form.  Linnaeus  himself  says  of  him,  that, 
"though  the  first  in  attempting  to  form  natural  orders,  he  observed  as 
many  as  the  most  successful  later  writers"  (Whewell,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  282, 
283). 

A  reason  for  this  precocious  development  of  a  natural  classification  of 
plants  may  be  sought  in  the  very  multiplicity  of  kinds  and  the  large  herbaria 
and  horticultural  gardens  in  existence,  which  necessitated  some  sort  of  orderly 
arrangement  and  which  would  assist  the  eager  student  to  recognize  related 
series.  We  note  in  contrast  the  delayed  progress  of  the  classification  of  the 
mammals  due  to  the  comparative  fewness  of  known  forms,  the  greater 
complexity  of  organization  and  the  difficulties  of  observation. 

THE  RAIAN  EPOCH,  THE  DAWN  OF  MODERN  ZOOLOGY. 

Among  those  who  contributed  the  data  for  Linnseus's  generalizations, 
no  name  is  more  important,  at  least  in  the  history  of  vertebrate  zoology,  than 

1  E.  Ray  Lankester,  The  History  and  Scope  of  Zoology,  in  The  Advancement  of  Science 
London,  1890,  p.  293. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  25 

that  of  John  Ray.  Accordingly,  the  fourth  epoch  under  consideration  may 
be  termed  the  Raian  Epoch,  and  culminates  with  the  publication  in  1693 
of  Ray's  "Synopsis  Methodica  Animalium  Quadrupedum  et  Serpentini 
Generis,"  which  is  one  of  the  great  landmarks  in  the  history  of  classification. 
Ray's  debt  to  the  past  is  shown  in  the  facts  that  his  lucid  tabular  analyses 
of  the  common  structural  features  of  animals  are  arranged  dichotomously; 
that  in  each  division  and  subdivision  a  single  adjective  or  adjectival  phrase 
indicates  the  most  important  common  feature  of  the  animals  in  question, 
and  that  these  terms  are,  as  we  have  seen,  in  many  cases  borrowed  from 
Aristotle. 

Ray,  like  Linnaeus,  gave  more  attention  to  plants  than  to  animals,  and 
depended  upon  his  colleague,  Willughby,  for  much  of  the  data,  especially 
in  the  fishes.  Like  Linnaeus  also,  Ray  had  a  superb  gift  of  order  and  a 
philosophical  mind  that  made  him  a  worthy  countryman  and  contemporary 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

In  his  tabular  analysis,  Ray  distinctly  foreshadows  Linnaeus  in  the  fol- 
lowing points :  — 

1.  The  higher  vertebrates  are  contrasted  with  the  fishes  as  breathing 
by  lungs  instead  of  gills. 

2.  The  whales  are  classed  with  the  viviparous   animals  and  expressly 
removed  from  the  fishes,  from  which  they  were  further  distinguished  by  the 
horizontality  of  the  tail-fin.     This  step,  however,  was  felt  to  be  so  radical 
that  Ray  afterwards  constructed  a  definition  which  included  both  whales 
and  fishes. 

3.  As  remarked  by  Gill,  the   terrestrial  or  quadruped   mammals  are 
bracketed  with  the  aquatic  as  "Vivipara,"  and  contrasted  with  the  "Ovi- 
para"  or  "Aves."     "The  Vivipara  are  exactly  co-extensive  with  Mammalia, 
but  the  word  '  vivipara '  was  used  as  an  adjective  and  not  as  a  noun. " 1    This 
distinction  seems  to  have  been  an  important  one,  when  substance  was  so 
carefully    distinguished    from    attribute.     Ray    emphasized   the    common 
attributes  of  all  the  terrestrial  hairy  quadrupeds,  of  the  amphibious  hairy 
animals  such  as  the  seals  and  manati,  and  of  the  purely  aquatic  and  fish-like 
Cetaceans;    but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  insisted  that  all  these  animals 
agreed  in  essence  and  substance  as  well  as  in  attribute,  so  that  they  should 
require  a  new  substantive  name  such  as  Linnaeus  afterward  applied  to  them. 

4.  The  double  ventricle  is  noted  as  characteristic  of  both  Vivipara  and 
Ovipara. 

5.  In  order  to  associate  the  "manati"  and  other  amphibious  mammals 
with  their  terrestrial  congeners,  the  term  "hairy  animals"  is  employed  as 
more  comprehensive  than  quadrupeds. 

»  The  Story  of  a  Word  Mammal,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  LXI.  September,  1902, 
pp.  434-438. 


26  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Ray  further  set  the  standard  for  Linnaeus  in  his  concise  descriptions  of 
European  and  foreign  mammals,  especially  those  described  by  travelers  in 
America  and  in  the  East.  Ray  often  used  the  term  "species"  merely  as 
the  equivalent  of  the  middle  English  "spece,"  which  survives  in  our  word 
spice,"  and  meant  "kind:"  it  was  also  equivalent  to  the  logical  "species" 
(cf.  the  Greek  c*8os)  of  the  schoolmen,  and  is  exemplified  in  Ray  and  Wil- 
lughby's  "Historia  Pjscium"  in  such  phrases  as  "clarias  niloticus  Belonii 
mustelse  fluviatilis  species,"  "bagre  piscis  barbati  ac  aculeati  species."  But 
Ray  also  used  the  term  "  species "  in  quite  a  Linnsean  manner,  as  in  the 
names  Ovis  laticauda,  Ovis  strepsiceros  and  Ovis  domestica.  In  form,  at  least, 
this  foreshadows  the  binomial  system  of  nomenclature  and  the  recognition  of 
the  species  in  general  as  a  supposedly  objective  reality  and  the  unit  of  classifi- 
cation. The  form  of  Ray's  specific  definitions  seems,  however,  to  imply  that 
the  term  "species"  in  Ray's  mind  was  often  more  a  "differentia,"  or  specific 
adjective  modifying  the  generic  concept  than  a  fully  developed  substantive 
name,  and  Ray  did  not  apparently  realize  the  convenience  of  applying  the 
binomial  method  of  nomenclature  universally.  Even  Linnaeus  at  first  intro- 
duced the  specific,  "trivial,"  or  common  name,  merely  as  a  marginal 
index  or  symbol  of  the  full  specific  phrase.  Ray  recognized  the  considerable 
variability  of  species,  but  believed  also  in  their  separate  creation  and  fixity. 
He  frequently  adverts  to  the  internal  characters  of  animals;  and  his  book 
shows,  that  even  by  his  time  a  considerable  number  of  observations  on 
the  soft  parts  of  animals  had  already  accumulated. 

THE  LINN>EAN  EPOCH. 

The  work  of  Ray  in  botany  and  zoology  fully  prepared  the  way  for 
Linnaeus,  whose  epoch  may  be  characterized  as  the  Legislative  Epoch,  be- 
cause his  methods  of  description  and  classification,  and  especially  his  nomen- 
clature exerted  such  profound  formative  and  regulative  influence  upon  the 
work  of  his  contemporaries  and  successors  that  he  was  called  the  "  lawgiver 
of  natural  history." 

Linnceus's  Broader  Contributions  to  the  Class  Mammalia. 

One  of  the  most  enduring  claims  of  Linnaeus  upon  the  grateful  memory 
of  posterity  arises  from  his  felicitous  coinage  of  the  word  "mammalia" 
(animals  with  mammae  or  breasts  after  analogy  with  Latin  words  like  ani- 
mal *)  as  a  class  name  for  the  forms  characterized  by  Ray  as  "  viviparous 
hairy  animals."  Thus  not  only  the  terrestrial  hairy  oviparous  quadrupeds, 

i  Theodore  Gill,  I.  c. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  27 

but  also  the  aquatic  Vivipara  now  called  Cetaceans  and  Sirenians,  were  for 
the  first  time  definitely  included  under  a  single  class  name. 

In  attempting  to  appraise  Linnaeus's  contributions  to  the  broader  knowl- 
edge of  the  class  of  mammals,  we  must  bear  in  mind  what  Dr.  J.  A.  Allen 
has  well  shown,1  namely:  that  Linnaeus  was  primarily  a  botanist,  that  his 
interest  in  mammals  was  incidental,  that  his  opportunities  for  studying 
them  were  very  limited,  that  his  first-hand  knowledge  of  extra-European 
mammals  was  practically  nil,  and  finally  that  several  of  his  ordinal  group- 
ings of  mammals  (e.  g.,  rhinoceros  with  the  rodents)  now  appear  highly 
unnatural  and  even  ludicrous. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  considerations  which  may  prevent 
us  from  thinking  any  the  less  of  his  judgment  and  genius  on  that  account. 
Although  Linnaeus  may  have  known  very  little  about  extra-European 
mammals,  he  had,  nevertheless,  a  fairly  good  conception  of  the  essential 
features  of  mammals  as  a  class,  as  shown  by  his  definition  in  the  tenth  edition 
of  the  "Systema  Naturae"  (1758).  Here  in  concise  phrase  he  states  that 
mammals  have  a  heart  with  two  auricles  and  two  ventricles,  with  hot  red 
blood;  that  the  lungs  breathe  rhythmically;  that  the  jaws  are  slung  as  in 
other  vertebrates,  but  "covered,"  i.  e.,  with  flesh,  as  opposed  to  the  "naked" 
jaws  of  birds;  that  the  penis  is  intromittent ;  that  the  females  are  viviparous, 
and  secrete  and  give  milk;  that  the  means  of  perception  are  the  tongue, 
nose,  eyes,  ears  and  the  sense  of  touch;  that  the  integument  is  provided 
with  hairs,  which  are  sparse  in  tropical  and  still  fewer  in  aquatic  mammals ; 
that  the  body  is  supported  on  four  feet,  save  in  the  aquatic  forms,  in  which 
the  hind  limbs  are  said  to  be  coalesced  into  a  tail  (the  only  erroneous  idea 
in  the  whole  definition). 

Many  of  these  characters  had  previously  been  noticed  by  Ray  in  his 
description  of  the  hairy  quadrupeds.  It  is  not  impossible,  too,  that  Lin- 
naeus may  have  been  assisted  to  the  comprehension  of  the  essential  features 
of  the  mammals  through  his  friendship  with  Bernard  de  Jussieu,  who  is 
said  by  Isidore  Geoffroy  Saint-Hilaire  to  have  induced  him  to  include  the 
Cetaceans  in  the  class  Mammalia;  and  possibly  he  also  owed  something 
to  the  researches  of  Klein  and  Brisson.  In  spite  of  all  this,  Linnaeus's  own 
studies  in  medicine,  in  Holland,  doubtless  made  him  familiar  with  the 
anatomy  of  at  least  one  mammal,  man;  and  on  his  journeys  through  the 
north  of  Europe  he  must  have  observed  many  other  mammals  at  close  range. 
Thus  was  Linnaeus  prepared  for  the  clear  recognition  and  emphasis  of 
another  fact  of  far-reaching  importance.  It  was  evidently  well  known 
that  the  anatomy  of  the  hairy  quadrupeds  was  similar  in  plan,  if  not  in  detail, 

1  See  pp.  9  ff. 


28  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

to  that  of  man,  and  we  find  Descartes  (for  example,  in  his  "Discourse  on 
Method"  Part  V.,  1637)  advising  those  who  wished  to  understand  his 
theory  of  the  action  of  the  lungs  and  circulatory  system,  "to  take  the  trouble 
of  getting  dissected  in  their  presence  the  heart  of  some  large  animal  pos- 
sessed of  lungs,  for  this  is  throughout  sufficiently  like  the  human"  (ital.  mihi). 
And  it  was  further  known  that  of  all  animals  the  monkeys  are  most  nearly 
like  man,  both  externally  and  internally.  This  was  asserted  by  Aristotle 
and  other  classical  authors,  but  was  fully  demonstrated  in  a  carefully  pre- 
pared and  illustrated  work  1  on  the  anatomy  and  appearance  of  animals 
from  the  Jardin  du  Roi,  by  a  committee  of  savants  of  the  French  Academy, 
appointed  by  the  Grand  Monarch. 

This  work  and  these  important  observations  may  or  may  not  have  come 
under  the  notice  of  Linnaeus  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  Paris  in  1738. 
At  any  rate,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  follow  the  logical  consequences  of  these 
facts,  namely,  that  in  a  strictly  zoological  classification,  man  would  be 
grouped  not  only  in  the  class  Mammalia,  but  even  in  the  same  ordinal  divi- 
sion with  the  monkeys.  Accordingly,  in  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Systema 
the  earlier  name  Anthropomorphse  is  replaced  by  Primates,  and  the  genera 
Homo,  Simia,  Lemur  and  VespertiMo,  are  grouped  under  that  order.  The 
Primates  were  thus  regarded  as  the  chiefs  of  the  hierarchy  of  terrestrial 
beings,  and  consequently,  as  in  nearly  all  subsequent  schemes  down  to  the 
Darwinian  Epoch,  head  the  classified  legions  of  creatures.  Linnaeus  was  too 
often  at  fault  in  surmising  the  generic  and  ordinal  affinities  of  the  species  of 
the  lower  vertebrates;  but  this  bold  allocation  of  man  to  the  order  Primates 
surely  bears  the  marks  of  genius,  and  led  the  way  to  the  modern  generaliza- 
tion that  man  is  knit  by  ties  of  blood  kinship  to  the  Primates,  and  more 
remotely  to  the  whole  organic  world. 

Linnaeus' s  Principles  in  his  Classification  of  the  Mammalia. 

The  diagnostic  definition  given  by  Linnaus  of  the  order  Primates  may 
be  cited  because  it  rests  upon  the  principles  and  theories  which  guided  him 
in  classification  and  which  led  to  his  most  successful  groupings,  as  well  as 
to  his  serious  blunders.  This  definition  is  as  follows:  — 

Inferior  front  teeth  iv,  parallel,  laniariform  [canine]  teeth  solitary  [that  is,  in  a  single 

pair  above  and  below]. 
Mammae  pectoral,  one  pair. 
The  anterior  extremities  are  hands. 
The  arms  are  separated  by  clavicles,  the  gait  usually  on  all  fours  ("incessu  tetrapodo 

volgo"). 
They  climb  trees  and  pluck  the  fruits  thereof. 

1  Mgmoires  pour  servir  a  1'histoire  naturelle  des  animaux,  a  la  Haye,  1715  (4to,  2  vols.), 
redig£es  par  Perrault  et  Dodart. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  29 

This  definition  was  clearly  insufficient  to  exclude  all  extraneous  genera 
from  this  really  natural  order;  for  (1)  under  Lemur  Linnaeus  included,  not 
only  all  the  then  known  forms  now  recognized  as  the  suborder  Lemuroidea, 
but  also  the  "Flying  Lemur,"  Galeopithecus,  which  properly  either  forms 
an  order  by  itself  with  no  near  affinities  with  the  Primates,  or  is  at  most  a 
suborder  of  the  Cheiroptera;  (2)  the  definition  also  included  " Vespertilio," 
i.  e.,  the  bats,  excepting  Noctilio,  an  order  more  nearly  related  to  the  Insecti- 
vores  than  to  the  Primates. 

Many  of  the  characters  selected  by  Linnaeus  for  his  ordinal  diagnoses 
were  of  the  "adaptive"  or  superficial  kind,  which  are  now  known  to  have 
been  most  easily  modifiable  by  changes  in  the  external  or  internal  environ- 
ment. The  reason  for  this  mistake  was,  that  Linnaeus  regarded  the  mode 
of  sustenance  of  a  group  as  one  of  its  most  deep-seated  attributes  and  most 
surely  indicative  of  more  or  less  hidden  affinities  with  other  groups.  Lin- 
naeus was  constantly  searching  for  natural  groups,  but  he  did  not  realize 
that  the  natural  affinity  of  the  members  of  the  larger  groups  was  due  to 
descent  from  common  ancestors,  just  as  in  the  case  of  members  of  the  same 
species.  An  example  of  his  reliance  upon  sustenance  is  seen  in  his  defini- 
tion, in  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Systema,  of  the  order  Ferae,  the  Carnivora 
of  later  authors.  Here  "sustenance  by  rapine,  upon  carcasses  ravenously 
snatched"  is  evidently  felt  to  be  connected  with  "front  teeth  in  both  jaws: 
superior  vi,  all  acute,"  with  "laniariform  teeth  [canines]  solitary,"  with 
"claws  on  the  feet  acute." 

One  of  his  dicta  in  botany  was,  that  a  character  of  great  systematic 
importance  in  one  group  may  be  very  variable  in  another;  consequently  he 
did  not  mention  "  sustenance  "  under  Bruta,  but  contented  himself  with  the 
two  characters  "front  teeth  none  either  above  or  below"  and  "gait  awkward 
(incessus  ineptior)."  As  this  order  included  the  elephant,  the  manatee, 
the  sloth,  the  great  ant-eater  and  the  scaly  ant-eater,  it  has  been  justly  cited 
as  a  grossly  unnatural  assemblage,  and  the  grouping  accounted  for  by 
Linnaeus's  ignorance  of  the  animals  composing  it. 

Now  it  is  possible  that  Linnaeus  himself  did  not  regard  this  assemblage 
as  natural,  but  merely  as  a  convenient  artificial  grouping.  But  I  am  more 
disposed  to  attribute  its  existence  to  his  habit  of  searching  for  hidden  affini- 
ties below  the  most  obvious  external  differences,  as  when  he  placed  the  seals 
in  the  order  Ferae,  joined  the  bats  with  the  Primates,  the  horse  and  the 
hippopotamus,  the  rhinoceros  with  the  Rodents,  and  the  pig  with  the  Insecti- 
vores  (in  the  order  Bestise). 

Linnaeus  recognized  that  the  ordinal  classification  of  the  mammals  was 
a  difficult  problem,  as  is  shown  by  the  conspicuous  changes  (not  always 
improvements  in  our  eyes)  and  redistributions  which  he  made  between  the 


30  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

first  and  "tenth"  editions  of  the  Systema  and  further  by  the  fact  that  Erx- 
leben,  who  revised  and  extended  the  Systema  (1777),  abandoned  the  ordi- 
nal divisions  entirely  and  merely  listed  the  genera  seriatim.  The  difficulty 
of  the  problem  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  Cuvier,  with  far  better  material 
and  more  extensive  knowledge,  was  constantly  deceived  by  "adaptive" 
(or  homoplastic)  resemblances.  Even  Cope,  who  wrote  much  on  homo- 
plastic  and  convergent  evolution,  was  himself  deceived  by  the  similarities 
of  structure  in  the  marsupial  "mole,"  Notoryctes,  and  the  Cape  golden 
mole,  Chrysochloris,  an  undoubted  insectivore. 

The  most  "inexcusable"  blunder  of  Linnseus,  that  of  placing  the  rhino- 
ceros with  the  Rodents  under  the  order  "  Glires,"  may  have  been  due,  not 
to  carelessness,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  Indian  rhinoceros  has  a  single  pair 
of  close-set  cutting  incisors  in  the  upper  jaw,  which  oppose  the  elongate 
incisor-like  appressed  canines  of  the  lower  jaw  and  thus  show  a  superficial 
approach  to  the  rodent  dentition.  If  Linnaeus  had  known  that  Hyrax, 
which  Pallas  described  as  a  Rodent  ("Cavia"),  had  cheek-teeth  like  those 
of  Rhinoceros,  he  doubtless  might  have  felicitated  himself  upon  his  supposed 
astuteness. 

In  brief,  Linnaeus,  as  fully  shown  by  Whewell,1  from  his  profound  and 
wide  botanical  knowledge,  was  acquainted  with  many  natural  orders,  and 
strove  constantly  to  recognize  others.  He  knew  that  a  character  of  great 
diagnostic  and  fundamental  value  in  one  order  may  be  of  slight  value  in 
another;  he  knew  that  even  in  a  natural  order  some  of  the  diagnostic  and 
fundamental  characters  might  be  absent  in  certain  members  otherwise 
clearly  allied  to  a  given  series.  He  knew  that  a  natural  series  is  "natural" 
because  of  the  totality  of  its  characters,  that  the  "genus  makes  the  character," 
and  not  vice  versa,  a  hard  doctrine  to  many  of  his  contemporaries.  When 
Linnseus  had  arrived  at  a  conception  of  any  given  natural  order,  he  selected 
certain  characters  as  diagnostic,  but  not  necessarily  universal,  and  constructed 
professedly  artificial  or  only  partly  natural  keys  to  his  "natural"  orders. 

When  Linnaeus  turned  his  attention  to  the  classification  of  animals,  we 
may  believe  that  he  followed  the  same  principles.  In  this  application  of  the 
principles  gained  in  one  subject  to  the  data  of  another,  we  have  a  good 
example  of  the  felicitous  union  of  specifically  distinct  ideas  to  produce  a 
line  of  ideas  that  are  new  and  very  fertile. 

The  Relation  of  Linnaeus  to  his  Successors. 

Linnseus  inherited  from  Ray  and  from  the  scholastic  system  the  dogma 
of  the  separate  creation  and  objective  reality  of  species,  which  became 

*  Op.  Cit.,  pp.  319-325. 


A.VNALS    N.Y.    ACAD.    SCI. 


VOL.  XVIII    PLATE  III. 


Courtesy  N.Y.  Botan.  Garden.  W.  A.  Murrill,  Photo. 

FIG.  I.     HAMMARBY,  THE  COUNTRY  HOME  OF  LINNAEUS  NEAR 
UPSALA,  SWEDEN. 


Courtesy  N.Y.  Botan.  Garden. 

FIG.  2.     TABLET  PLACED  ON  THE  LINN^US  BRIDGE  BY  THE 
NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  31 

developed  and  strengthened  in  his  hands  as  a  result  of  his  observations. 
His  dictum  was  species  tot  sunt  diversce  quot  diversce  formce  ah  initio  sunt 
creatcB.  The  resemblances  between  members  of  a  single  species  were  hence 
held  to  be  due  to  descent  from  an  original  pair,  and  the  mutual  infertility 
of  different  species  to  be  the  natural  penalty  of  the  effort  to  traverse  the  gaps 
established  from  the  beginning. 

This  view  was  somewhat  modified  in  later  editions  of  the  Systema,  in 
which  Linnaeus  held  that  "all  the  species  of  one  genus  constituted  at  first 
(that  is  at  the  Creation)  one  species,  ab  initio  unam  constituerint  speciem; 
they  were  subsequently  multiplied  by  hybrid  generation  that  is  by  inter- 
crossing with  other  species."  1 

The  general  relation  of  Linnaeus  to  his  successors  may  be  summarized 
in  a  few  words.  The  sixth  epoch  in  the  history  of  zoology  extends  from  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
may  be  called  the  Anatomical  Epoch,  because,  through  the  labors  of  Cuvier 
and  his  great  English  pupil  and  successor,  Richard  Owen,  the  taxonomic 
studies  of  the  Linnsean  school  were  supplemented  by  the  establishment  and 
great  development  of  the  sciences  of  comparative  anatomy  and  paleontol- 
ogy. In  spite,  however,  of  the  improvement  and  expansion  of  classification, 
its  bearing  upon  evolution  was  not  generally  perceived.  Cuvier's  researches 
in  these  sciences  further  extended  the  dogma  of  the  fixity  of  species;  but 
Owen,  through  his  broader  knowledge,  gradually  gave  up  the  idea  and 
became  an  evolutionist,  although  not  a  selectionist. 

The  seventh  epoch,  the  Darwinian,  in  which  happily  we  are  living,  has 
seen  the  overthrow  of  the  traditional  doctrine  of  the  fixity  of  species,  and  has 
initiated  the  re-examination  of  all  morphological  phenomena  in  the  light  of 
the  doctrine  of  evolution.  These  morphological  facts  are  reflected  more 
and  more  in  our  evolving  classifications,  which  are  the  outgrowth  of  the 
Linnaean  system,  and  which  now  aim  to  express,  not  only  degrees  of  homo- 
logical  resemblances  and  differences,  but  also  (secondarily)  degrees  of  genetic 
kinship. 

The  great  "  lawgiver  of  natural  history  "  is  thus  seen  in  his  proper  per- 
spective in  a  few  at  least  of  the  series  of  historical  antecedents  and  conse- 
quents which  intersected  in  him,  inheriting,  as  he  did  on  the  one  hand,  the 
language  and  general  methods  of  the  past  and  the  doctrine  of  special 
creation;  inheriting  on  the  other  hand  the  new  spirit  and  contributions  of 
Vesalius,  Cesalpino,  Ray  and  many  others,  and  building  upon  this  the 
foundations  of  modern  botany  and  zoology. 


1  Osborn,  H.  F.     From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin,  p.  129. 


32  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

At  the  close  of  the  reading  of  Dr.  Allen's  address,  recess  was  taken  till 
two  o'clock,  p.m.  During  this  time  the  Council  entertained  at  luncheon 
at  the  Hermitage  Hotel,  near  Bronx  Park,  the  delegates  of  sister  societies 
and  invited  guests.  Afterward  the  special  exhibits  at  the  Botanical 
Museum  were  examined,  and  then  was  delivered  the  following  address. 


LINNAEUS  AND  AMERICAN  BOTANY. 
By  PER  AXEL  RYDBERG,  PH.  D. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  have  been  asked  to  make  a  short  address  to  you  on  Linnseus  and  his 
relation  to  North  American  botany.  That  the  selection  fell  on  me  was  not 
because  I  was  the  most  able  one  to  deliver  such  an  address,  for  there  are 


THE  TWIN-FLOWER,   LINN/EA  BOREALIS 

A  plant  especially  beloved  by  Linnseus,  and  dedicated  to  him  by  Gronovius. 

many  abler  men  present,  but  simply  because  I  was  born  in.  the  same  country 
as  Linnseus.  In  fact,  my  grandfather  came  from  the  same  province  of 
Smaland  and  even  from  a  parish  adjoining  that  of  Stembrohult,  in  which 
my  illustrious  countryman  was  born. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  lived  in  Jonsboda, 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  33 

Smaland,  Sweden,  a  fanner  named  Ingemar  Svenson.  He  had  three 
children,  two  sons  and  one  daughter,  the  grandmother  of  Linnaeus.  On 
the  Jonsboda  farm  stood  a  very  large  linden-tree,  so  old  and  with  so  many 
traditions  that  it  was  regarded  by  the  people  as  a  holy  tree.  Any  damage 
done  to  this  tree,  it  was  claimed,  would  surely  bring  misfortune  upon  the 
head  of  the  perpetrator.  When  the  two  sons  began  to  study  for  the  ministry, 
it  was  natural  that  they  should  think  of  this  tree  in  selecting  a  family  name. 
They  called  themselves  Tiliander;  Tilia  is  the  Latin  for  the  linden  or  bass- 
wood,  and  andros  the  Greek  for  man.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  state  that  at 
that  time  the  common  people  of  Sweden  did  not  have  any  family  names, 
and  this  is  true  to  a  certain  extent  even  to-day.  A  man  was  knowrn  by  his 
given  name,  the  given  name  of  his  father  with  the  word  son  appended,  and 
the  place  where  he  lived.  The  farmer  mentioned  above  was  known  as 
Ingemar  Svenson  from  Jonsboda.  His  father's  name  was  Sven  Carlson, 
and  that  of  his  grandfather,  Carl  Johnson.  The  names  of  his  two  sons 
would  have  been  Carl  and  Sven  Ingemarson,  had  they  remained  in  the 
peasant  class,  instead  of  Carl  and  Sven  Tiliander. 

The  daughter  married  a  farmer,  Ingemar  Bengtson;  and  her  son's  name 
was  Nils  Ingemarson,  until  he  entered  the  "gymnasium."  He  also  was 
born  in  Jonsboda,  and,  when  selecting  a  name,  he  also  naturally  turned  to 
the  same  old  linden-tree  as  his  maternal  uncles  had  done.  He  called  him- 
self Linnoeus.  It  is  remarkable  that  two  of  his  father's  maternal  grand- 
uncles  also  bore  another  Latin  form  of  the  same  name,  viz.,  Lindelius. 
Some  claim  that  even  this  name  was  derived  from  the  same  old  linden-tree, 
but  this  is  scarcely  in  accordance  with  the  facts.  More  likely  it  traces  its 
origin  from  the  Linden  Farm  in  Dannas  Parish,  where  their  ancestors  lived. 

But  what  has  this  genealogy  to  do  with  Linnaeus's  relation  to  North 
American  botany?  Perhaps  nothing  directly,  but  indirectly  a  great  deal; 
for  the  circumstances  and  surroundings  under  which  a  man  is  born  and 
reared  to  a  certain  extent  make  the  man.  In  his  younger  days,  Sven 
Tiliander  was  the  house-chaplain  of  Field-Marshal  and  Admiral- Viscount 
Henrik  Horn,  who  was  for  many  years  Governor  of  Bremen  and  Verden, 
two  cities  with  territory  in  Germany  acquired  by  Sweden  through  the 
Thirty-years  War.  During  his  stay  in  Germany,  Tiliander  learned  to  know 
and  love  botany  and  horticulture,  and  established  around  Viscount  Horn's 
residence  in  Bremen  a  garden  which  was  remarkable  for  that  period.  When 
both  returned  to  Sweden,  Tiliander  brought  with  him  the  choicest  plants 
from  this  garden  and  planted  them  around  the  parsonage  of  Pjetteryd 
Parish,  of  which  he  had  been  appointed  rector.  Here  at  Pjetteryd,  Nils 
Linneeus  spent  most  of  his  youth,  studying  in  company  with  his  uncle's 
sons.  Later,  both  as  curate  at  Rashult  and  as  rector  at  Stenbrohult,  he 


34  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

surrounded  the  parsonages  with  gardens  in  which  he  grew  many  rare  and 
interesting  plants.  In  the  midst  of  these,  Carl  Linnaeus,  the  famous  botanist, 
was  born  and  reared.  Later,  while  a  student  at  the  university,  he  spent  a 
summer  vacation  at  home  in  1732,  and  made  a  list  of  the  plants  in  his 
father's  garden.  This  list  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Academy  of  Science  at 
Stockholm.  Although  defective,  the  first  four  classes  being  unrepresented, 
it  enumerates  224  species.  Of  these,  many  were  at  that  time  very  rare  in 
cultivation.  Professor  Theodore  Fries  in  his  biography  of  Linnaeus  enumer- 
ates 36  of  the  rarest  of  these.  Among  them  we  notice  six  American  plants, 
viz.,  Rkus  Toxicodendron,  the  poison  oak,  Mirabilis  Jalapa,  four-o-clock, 
Asckpias  syriaca,  milkweed,  Phytolacca  decandra,  poke  weed,  Antennaria 
(now  Anaphalis)  margaritacea,  pearly  everlasting,  and  Solanum  tuberosum, 
the  potato.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  cultivation  of  potatoes  was 
introduced  into  Sweden  about  twenty  years  later.  We  see  from  this  that 
Linnaeus  had  learned  to  know  some  American  plants  even  in  his  early 
childhood. 

Carl  Linnaeus  was  born  the  13th  of  May,  O.S.,  1707,  at  Rashult,  an 
annex  to  the  parish  of  Stenbrohult.  His  father  was  the  curate  there;  but 
two  years  later,  at  the  death  of  his  father-in-law,  Samuel  Broderson,  he 
became  rector  and  moved  to  Stenbrohult.  In  the  fall  of  1714,  Carl  Lin- 
naeus entered  the  school  of  Wexio,  and  graduated  from  the  "gymnasium" 
in  1727.  His  parents,  especially  his  mother,  wanted  him  to  study  for  the 
ministry;  but  he  had  no  love  for  theology,  nor  for  metaphysics,  nor  the 
classics.  He  learned  Latin  tolerably,  however,  because  that  language 
helped  him  to  study  the  natural  sciences.  He  decided  to  study  medicine, 
and  entered  with  that  view  the  University  of  Lund,  which  was  nearest  his 
home,  but  remained  there  only  one  year,  learning  that  there  were  better 
facilities  at  Upsala.  At  the  latter  place  he  soon  became  acquainted  with 
Professors  Rudbeck  and  Celsius,  two  of  the  most  prominent  scientists  of 
that  time,  and  was  allowed  to  use  their  libraries.  The  former,  who  had 
many  duties  to  perform,  soon  asked  Linnaeus  to  give  for  him  the  public 
lectures  in  botany.  The  income  from  these  gave  Linnaeus  means  to  sup- 
port himself,  and  linked  him  closer  to  his  favorite  study.  He  became 
acquainted  with  practically  all  the  plants  of  the  gardens  and  fields  of  the 
whole  region  around  Upsala,  and  learned  all  the  scientific  names  given  in  the 
books  at  his  disposal. 

The  latter  was  not  an  easy  matter  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
form  of  scientific  names  at  that  period.  For  example,  the  most  approved 
name  of  the  common  blue-grass  that  adorns  our  lawns  was,  "Gramen 
pratense  paniculatum  majus,  latiore  folio,  Poa  Theophrasti."  Other  names 
of  the  same  grass  were,  "Gramen  vulgo  cognitum"  "Gramen  pratense 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  35 

majus  vulgatus,"  and  "Gramen  alterum  et  vulgare."  In  the  first  publication 
by  Linnaeus,  it  appears  as  "Poa  spiculis  ovatis  compressis  muticis."  I 
think  that  Linnaeus  and  his  contemporaries  had  much  more  cause  than 
we  to  exclaim,  "Those  horrible  Latin  names!"  To  us  the  same  plant  is 
known  as  Poa  pratensis  L.,  the  name  adopted  by  Linnaeus  in  his  "Species 
Plantarum." 

The  lectures  given  by  Linnaeus  for  Professor  Rudbeck  became  very 
popular.  This  was  especially  the  case  after  his  return  from  his  Lapland 
journey.  Some  persons,  especially  Dr.  Nils  Rosen,  became  jealous  of  his 
success,  and  induced  the  university  faculty  to  pass  a  resolution  by  which  no 
one  who  had  not  taken  the  corresponding  degree  was  permitted  to  give 
university  lectures.  Linnaeus  had  not  yet  received  his  doctor's  degree,  and 
hence  was  debarred.  As  Holland  was  offering  at  that  time  excellent  facilities 
both  in  medicine  and  in  botany,  and  as  living  expenses  were  lower  there  than 
elsewhere,  Linnaeus  decided  to  visit  that  country  and  take  his  examinations 
there.  He  received  his  doctor's  diploma  at  Harderwijk,  and  afterwards 
went  to  Leyden,  where  he  became  acquainted  with  three  of  the  greatest 
botanists  of  the  time,  Boerhaave,  Burmann  and  Gronovius.  George 
Cliffort,  the  wealthy  burgomaster  of  Amsterdam  and  president  of  the  East 
India  Company,  was  a  great  lover  of  plants,  and  had  a  splendid  botanical 
garden  at  Hartecamp  as  well  as  a  rich  library  and  herbarium.  On  the 
recommendation  of  Boerhaave,  Linnaeus  became  Cliff ort's  physician,  and 
curator  of  his  collections  and  garden.  Here  he  lived  in  luxury,  beloved  as 
a  son. 

Cliffort  furnished  Linnaeus  with  means  to  publish  five  of  his  first  books, 
"Systema  Naturae,"  "Fundamenta  Botanica,"  "Bibliotheca  Botanica," 
"Genera  Plantarum"  and  "Flora  Lapponica,"  the  manuscript  of  which  he 
had  brought  with  him  from  Sweden.  In  the  first  of  these,  Linnaeus  presents 
his  system  of  classification.  He  divides  Nature  into  three  kingdoms, —  the 
mineral,  vegetable  and  animal.  In  the  vegetable  kingdom  he  brings  out 
an  altogether  new  classification,  based  upon  the  sexual  organs  of  plants. 
He  divides  the  kingdom  into  24  classes,  the  first  23  containing  the  phan- 
erogams, and  the  last  the  cryptogams.  In  the  first  11  classes  are  included 
plants  which  have  from  1  to  12  free  and  practically  equal  stamens;  in  the 
12th  and  the  13th,  plants  with  many  stamens;  in  the  14th  and  15th,  plants 
with  4  and  6  stamens  respectively,  of  which  2  are  decidedly  shorter.  In  the 
16th,  17th  and  18th  classes  the  stamens  are  united  by  their  filaments,  in 
the  19th  they  are  united  by  their  anthers,  and  in  the  20th  they  are  adnate  to 
the  pistil.  In  the  21st  and  22d  the  flowers  are  unisexual,  i.e.,  the  stamens 
and  pistils  are  in  different  flowers  (on  the  same  individual  in  the  21st  and  on 
different  individuals  in  the  22d) ;  and  the  plants  of  the  23d  class  have  both 


36  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

unisexual  and  bisexual  flowers.  The  classes  were  divided  into  orders. 
In  the  first  13  classes  the  orders  were  determined  by  the  number  of  the 
pistils;  in  the  14th  and  15th,  by  the  fruit;  and  in  the  16th  to  18th  and  20th 
to  23d,  by  the  number  and  distinctness  or  union  of  the  stamens.  The  classi- 
fication of  the  19th  class  is  too  complex  to  enter  into  here.  The  24th  class 
was  divided  into  four  orders :  Filices,  Musci,  Algae  and  Fungi. 

This  system  of  classification  is  purely  artificial.  Linnaeus  himself  re- 
garded it  only  as  temporary,  and  expected  that  it  would  soon  be  supplanted 
by  a  more  rational  one,  based  on  natural  relationship.  The  Linnaean 
system  served  its  purpose,  however.  It  became  a  means  by  which  it  was 
possible  to  tabulate  every  known  genus  of  plants.  Before  this  time  there 
had  been  no  systems  at  all,  or  such  crude  ones  as  we  find  even  to-day  in 
some  popular  flower-books,  where  the  plants  are  classified  by  the  color  of 
their  flowers.  If  the  natural  systems  of  DeCandolle,  Bentham  and  Hooker, 
and  Engler  and  Prantl,  are  too  complicated  for  popular  books,  why  not  go 
back  to  the  simple  system  of  Linnaeus  ?  It  would  at  least  give  a  good  insight 
into  the  structure  of  the  flower  instead  of  the  mere  color. 

In  his  "Genera  Plantarum,"  Linnaeus  applied  this  system  to  all  known 
genera  of  plants,  and  gave  each  of  them  a  concise  and  plain  description. 

Cliffort  had  many  American  plants  in  his  garden,  but  he  sent  Linnaeus 
to  England  to  visit  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  Professor  Dillenius  and  Philip  Miller, 
in  order  to  secure  American  plants  grown  by  them.  Both  Sloane  and 
Dillenius  treated  Linnaeus  at  first  with  coolness,  because  he  "confounded 
botany."  On  his  farewell  visit  to  Dillenius,  Linnaeus  politely  asked  him 
what  he  meant  by  "confounding  botany."  Dillenius  took  from  the  library 
the  first  few  pages  of  Linnaeus's  own  "  Genera  Plantarum, "  and  showed  him 
where  there  was  written  at  numerous  places  "NB."  Dillenius  stated  that 
all  the  genera  so  marked  were  wrongly  described.  The  first  example  he 
pointed  out,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  was  Canna,  placed  by  Linnaeus  in  his  first 
class,  which  contains  plants  with  but  one  stamen.  Botanists  before  this 
time  had  described  it  as  having  three  stamens.  To  settle  the  dispute  they 
went  out  into  the  garden,  and  the  living  plant  showed  that  Linnaeus  was 
correct.  Dillenius  then  retained  Linnaeus  for  several  days,  and  found  that 
the  older  botanists  in  most  cases  were  at  fault  and  the  young  Swede  correct. 
From  being  an  opponent,  he  became  a  friend,  of  Linnaeus  and  let  him  have 
all  the  plants  he  wanted. 

After  his  return  to  Holland,  Linnaeus  continued  his  work  in  CHffort's 
garden  with  renewed  zeal,  and  completed  his  "Hortus  Cliffortianus,"  a 
large  folio,  in  which  are  enumerated  and  described  all  the  plants  found  in 
CHffort's  collections,  together  with  synonyms  and  citations  of  nearly  all 
botanical  works  then  in  existence.  In  preparing  this  work  he  became 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  37 

thoroughly  acquainted  with  almost  all  the  literature  referring  to  American 
botany,  such  as  Morison's  "Plantarum  Historia,"  Plukenett's  "Almagestrum 
Botanicum"  and  " Phytographia,"  Petiver's  " Gazophylacium,"  Sloane's 
"Jamaica,"  Plumier's  "Plantarum  Americanarum  Genera,"  "Plantarum 
Americanarum  Fasciculus  Primus"  and  "Filicetum  Americanum,"  Catesby's 
"Historia  Naturalis,"  and,  later,  Cornuti's  "Canadensium  Plantarum 
Historia." 

After  completing  the  "Hortus  Cliffortianus,"  Linnaeus  returned  to 
Leyden,  where  he  spent  some  time  helping  Gronovius  with  the  editing  of 
his  "Flora  Virginica,"  based  on  a  large  collection  of  plants  collected  by 
Clayton.  Here  again  he  came  in  contact  with  American  plants. 

Linnaeus  then  returned  to  Sweden  and  became  a  practicing  physician. 
He  was  soon  appointed  professor  of  medicine  at  Upsala,  but  by  common 
agreement  he  exchanged  chairs  with  Rosen,  who  held  the  professorship  of 
botany.  He  now  began  work  upon  the  most  important  book  of  his  life, 
his  "Species  Plantarum."  In  this  he  tried  to  include  a  short  description  of 
evenr  known  species  of  plant,  together  wyith  the  most  important  synonyms 
and  citations.  In  this  book  the  Linnsean  binomial  system  of  nomenclature 
was  used  for  the  first  time.  Linnaeus  was  not  the  first  to  give  plants  names, 
nor  was  he  the  first  to  name  genera.  Many  Latin  plant-names  had  come 
down  from  antiquity,  while  others  had  been  proposed  by  his  predecessors. 
Men  like  Tournefort  and  Micheli  had  in  some  cases  clearer  ideas  of  genera 
than  Linnaeus  himself.  Neither  was  Linnaeus  the  first  one  to  use  binomials. 
In  Cornuti's  work  on  Canadian  plants,  for  example,  we  find  almost  as  many 
binomials  as  polynomials;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  Linnaeus  had  seen  Cornuti's 
book  when  he  first  wrote  his  "Species  Plantarum."  He  does  not  cite  it  in 
the  first  edition,  but  does  so  in  the  second.  Linnaeus  was,  however,  the  first 
one  to  use  binomials  systematically  and  consistently.  Before  his  time, 
botanists  had  recognized  genera,  and  applied  to  them  Latin  nouns  as  names. 
In  order  to  designate  species,  they  added  to  these  nouns  adjective  descriptive 
phrases.  These  consisted  sometimes  of  a  single  adjective,  as  in  Quercus 
alba,  the  white  oak,  but  more  often  of  a  long  string  of  adjectives  and  adjective 
modifiers,  as  in  the  case  of  the  blue-grass  mentioned  above.  The  specific 
name  had  hitherto  been  merely  a  description  modifying  the  generic  name; 
from  this  time  it  became  really  a  name,  although  a  single  adjective  in  form. 
An  illustration  of  the  pre-Linnaean  form  of  plant-names  might  be  had  if, 
instead  of  "Grace  Darling,"  one  should  say,  "Mr.  Darling's  beautiful, 
slender,  graceful,  blue-eyed  girl  with  long  golden  curls  and  rosy  cheeks." 
"Grace"  is  just  as  descriptive  of  the  girl  as  this  whole  string  of  adjectives. 
It  may  be  that  "  Grace  "  is  not  always  applicable  to  the  person  to  whom  the 
name  is  applied;  but  this  is  also  often  the  case  with  many  specific  plant- 


38  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

names.  Asclepias  syriaca  and  Rumex  Brittanica  are  American  plants,  and 
Rubus  deliciosus  is  one  of  the  least  delicious  of  the  raspberry  tribe.  This 
invention  and  strict  application  of  binomial  names  could  not  but  cause 
a  revolution  in  botany.  Since  the  appearance  of  "Species  Plantarum"  in 
1753,  it  has  been  possible  to  pigeon-hole  not  only  genera,  but  also  species,  of 
plants. 

Before  this  useful -book  was  printed,  Linnaeus  had  become  better  ac- 
quainted with  North  American  plants,  and  in  another  way.  Baron  Bjelke, 
the  vice-president  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Finland,  had  proposed  to  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Stockholm  to  send  an  able  man  to  Iceland 
and  Siberia,  countries  partly  in  the  same  latitude  as  Sweden,  "to  make 
observations,  and  such  collections  of  seeds  and  plants  as  would  improve  the 
Swedish  husbandry,  gardening,  manufactures,  arts  and  sciences."  Dr. 
Linnaeus  suggested  North  America  instead,  and  recommended  one  of  his 
pupils,  Professor  Pehr  Kalm  of  Abo,  for  the  proposed  expedition.  Kalm 
spent  two  years  in  North  America,  traveling  through  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  New  York  and  Canada,  and  making  large  collections  of  seeds  and 
plants,  which  were  preserved  as  living  or  dried  specimens,  or  as  alcoholic 
material.  During  his  stay  at  Raccoon,  N.  J.,  he  discovered  our  mountain- 
laurel.  The  Swedes  of  Raccoon  called  it  spoon-tree,  because  the  Indians 
made  spoons  from  its  hard  wood.  Kalm  adds  in  his  journal,  about  this 
tree,  "The  English  call  this  tree  a  laurel,  because  its  leaves  resemble 
those  of  the  Laurocerasus.  Linnaeus,  conformably  to  the  peculiar  friend- 
ship and  goodness  which  he  has  honored  me  with,  has  pleased  to  call  this 
tree  Kalmia  foliis  ovalis,  corymbis  terminalibus,  or  Kalmia  latifolia."  Here 
Linnaeus  himself  gave  an  illustration  of  both  the  pre-Linnaean  and  the  post- 
Linnaean  nomenclature.  Kalm  became  acquainted  with  several  of  the 
naturalists  of  this  country,  C.  Golden  and  his  daughter  Jane,  Bartram  and 
Clayton,  and  through  Kalm  a  correspondence  was  established  between 
them  and  Linnaeus.  Linnaeus  also  corresponded  with  John  Ellis,  who 
resided  in  the  West  Indies,  and  Dr.  Gardiner,  who  botanized  in  Carolina 
and  Florida.  Later  he  bought  a  set  of  plants  collected  by  Patrick  Browne 
in  Jamaica,  and  received  a  part  of  the  collections  made  by  Jacquin  in  the 
West  Indies. 

When  the  second  edition  of  the  "Species  Plantarum"  appeared,  in  1762, 
Linnaeus  knew  and  had  described  nearly  1000  plants  indigenous  to  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  Besides  these,  he  described  about  1000  more, 
natives  of  the  West  Indies,  Mexico  and  Central  America,  and  400  or  500 
South  American  plants.  His  knowledge  of  American  plants  was  small 
compared  with  what  he  knew  of  plants  of  the  Old  World.  "  Codex  Lin- 
nseanus,"  which  enumerates  all  plants  named  by  Linnaeus,  contains  not 
fewer  than  8551  species. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  39 

Linnaeus  died  Jan.  10,  1778,  honored  and  esteemed  by  all.  Some  of 
his  work  will  doubtless  live  as  long  as  botany  is  studied  by  man. . 

We  see  from  the  preceding  account  that  we  may  consider  Linnaeus  one 
of  our  American  botanists.  Even  the  little  plant  which  Gronovius  dedicated 
to  the  Father  of  Botany,  the  twin-flower  of  our  woods,  with  its  exquisite 
perfume  and  its  dainty  pink  flowers,  belongs  to  a  genus  essentially  North 
American.  The  genus  Linncea  contains  four  forms,  all  closely  related.  One 
of  these,  the  original  Linncea  borealis,  is  confined  to  the  mountain  regions 
of  northern  and  central  Europe.  Linnaeus  discovered  it  on  his  Lapland 
journey,  and  it  was  then  considered  a  very  rare  plant.  Now  it  seems  to  be 
more  widely  distributed  than  it  was  at  the  time  of  Linnaeus.  Perhaps  it  is 
of  American  origin,  and  has  become  modified  since  it  transplanted  itself  on 
the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  The  other  three  forms  are  North  American. 
Linncea  americana  Forbes,  which  has  usually  been  confounded  with  its 
European  cousin,  is  common  in  the  woods  from  Labrador  to  Alaska,  and 
extends  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  far  south  as  New  Mexico.  L.  longiflora 
(Torr.)  Howell,  is  found  in  the  mountains  from  northern  California  to 
Alaska.  The  fourth  form  is,  as  far  as  I  know,  undescribed  and  unnamed. 
It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  here  propose  the  following  name  and  descrip- 
tion for  this  species. 

Ltnnsea  serpyllifolia  sp.  nov. 

A  delicate  plant  with  long  creeping  stems,  1-4  dm.  long,  sparingly  hirsute; 
petioles  2—3  mm.  long,  ciliate;  blades  broadly  oval  or  round-ovate,  5-8  mm. 
long,  minutely  crenulate,  obtuse,  sparingly  hirsute,  more  or  less  coriaceous 
and  shining,  slightly  paler  beneath;  peduncles  3-5  cm.  long,  sparingly 
pubescent  and  more  or  less  glandular  above,  2-flowered;  bracts  2-3  mm. 
long,  linear  or  lance-linear,  obtuse;  pedicels  5-8  mm.  long,  glandular- 
pubescent;  hypanthium  subglobose,  in  flower  slightly  over  1  mm.  long, 
glandular-puberulent,  purplish;  calyx-lobes  2-2.5  mm.  long,  linear-subulate; 
corolla  pink,  open-funnelform  with  a  very  short  tube,  decidedly  oblique, 
about  6  mm.  long  and  5  mm.  wide. 

This  species  differs  from  L.  borealis  and  L.  americana  in  the  very  narrow 
and  almost  glabrous  calyx-lobes.  In  this  respect,  it  agrees  with  L.  longi- 
flora; but  it  is  distinguished  from  that  species  by  the  differently  shaped 
corolla  and  by  the  leaves,  which  are  broadest  at  or  below  the  middle,  instead 
of  above  it.  It  differs  from  all  three  in  the  smaller  size  of  the  flower  and  of 
the  leaves,  and  in  the  indistinct  toothing  of  the  latter. 

Alaska:  Cape  Nome,  1900,  F.  E.  Blaisdell  (Type  in  herb.  N.Y.  Bot. 
Gard.);  Kotzebue  Sound,  Arnott. 


40  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Apparently  the  same  plant  has  also  been  collected  on  the   Island  of 
Sachalin  by  F.  Schmidt,  but  his  specimens  lack  flowers. 


After  Dr.  Rydberg's  address,  Professor  H.  H.  Rusby  gave  an  exhibition 
of  selected  lantern  slides  of  flowers  of  North  American  plants  known  to 
Linnaeus,  and  then  Dr.  W.  A.  Murrill  led  the  party  southward  from  the 
Museum  building,  through  the  Garden,  to  the  Linnaeus  Bridge,  pointing  out 
on  the  way  the  following  characteristic  American  trees  known  to  Linnseus. 
Tulip-tree  White  ash  White  elm 

Sweet-gum  Sugarberry  Red  oak 

Red  maple  Flowering  dogwood  White  oak 

Red  cedar  Sassafras  Hemlock 

Sweet  birch  Buttonwood  Chestnut-oak 

White  pine  Butternut  American  linden 

At  the  Linnseus  Bridge  over  the  Bronx  River,  on  Pelham  Parkway, 
Professor  N.  L.  Britton,  President  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences, 
unveiled  the  bronze  tablet  commemorative  of  Linnseus  which  had  been 
placed  there  by  the  Academy  with  the  consent  of  the  Department  of  Parks 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  made  the  following  address. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ACADEMY. 

N.  L.  BRITTON,  PH.  D. 

Director-in-chief,  New  York  Botanical  Garden. 

The  recognition  of  the  work  of  famous  men  is  one  of  the  happiest  duties 
of  mankind.  It  stimulates  our  endeavors  and  encourages  us  to  make  efforts 
which  we  would  probably  not  make  without  their  examples  before  us. 

To-day  we  do  homage  to  a  distinguished  man  of  science,  and  the  una- 
nimity with  which  the  scientific  societies  and  institutions  of  the  city  of 
New  York  join  in  this  tribute  is  in  itself  evidence  of  the  value  which  is 
placed  upon  his  contributions  to  natural  history. 

Science  has  made  great  progress  during  the  two  centuries  which  have 
elapsed  since  the  birth  of  Linnseus.  Theories  have  in  large  part  given 
place  to  ascertained  facts,  or  have  been  replaced  by  other  theories  based 
on  more  accurate  knowledge  of  natural  objects  and  of  natural  phenomena. 
The  contributions  of  science  to  the  welfare,  comfort  and  happiness  of 
mankind,  have  made  present  human  life  widely  different  from  that  of  two 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAUS  41 

hundred  years  ago;  and  this  amelioration  of  our  condition,  and  the  more 
general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  have  been  accompanied  by  a  vast  improve- 
ment in  morality. 

The  ceremonies  of  to-day  are  worthy  of  the  great  naturalist  whose  birth 
they  commemorate.  Societies  and  institutions  all  over  the  world  join  with 
us  in  honoring  him,  and  are  represented  here  by  delegates,  or  have  trans- 
mitted documents  expressing  their  appreciation  of  his  life  and  labors.  The 
public  natural  science  institutions  of  New  York  have  come  to  take  leading 
parts  in  the  subjects  they  teach  and  illustrate.  Public  and  private  philan- 
thropy have  developed  them  with  a  rapidity  almost  phenomenal,  for  they 
are  all  yet  in  their  infancy  and  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  dignity  of 
the  metropolis  of  America.  The  cordial  co-operation  of  a  municipality  with 
public-spirited  citizens  to  build  and  maintain  such  institutions  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people  and  of  science,  finds  here  in  New  York  its  maximum 
evolution,  which  has  as  yet,  however,  by  no  means  reached  its  complete 
development  or  its  maximum  usefulness.  What  will  be  said  of  their  posi- 
tion and  importance  when  after  fifty  years  the  New  York  Historical  Society 
opens  the  tablet  which  we  now  place  upon  this  bridge  ?  And  what  discov- 
eries will  science  have  made  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race  during  this 
next  fifty  years  ? 

The  selection  of  this  bridge,  recently  constructed  by  the  Park  Depart- 
ment, as  a  permanent  memorial  of  Linnaeus,  is  most  appropriate.  It  is 
situated  just  outside  the  New  York  Zoological  Park,  with  the  New  York 
Botanical  Garden  a  short  distance  to  the  north,  being  thus  between  the  two 
institutions  which  teach  the  subjects  on  which  the  fame  of  Linnaeus  chiefly 
rests.  The  suggestion  that  it  be  known  hereafter  as  the  Linnaean  Bridge 
came  from  the  Director  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History. 

On  behalf  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  I  now  unveil  this 
tablet,  and  present  it  to  the  city  of  New  York,  there  having  been  placed 
in  it  copies  of  to-day's  program  and  other  documents  befitting  the  occa- 


After  Wennerberg's  song,  rendered  by  the  American  Union  of  Swedish 
Singers,  "Hear  us,  Svea,"  Hon.  Joseph  I.  Berry,  Commissioner  of  Parks  of 
the  Borough  of  the  Bronx,  in  a  few  fitting  words  accepted  the  tablet  on 
behalf  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  then  delivered  the  key  of  the  box 
within  the  tablet  to  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  for  preservation  till 
May  23,  1957.  These  ceremonies  were  followed  by  the  singing,  by  the 
chorus,  of  Lindblad's  "Battle  Hymn,"  and  then  the  audience  listened  to 
the  following  two  addresses. 


42  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

ADDRESS  BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SCENIC 
AND  HISTORIC  PRESERVATION  SOCIETY. 

GEORGE  F.  KUNZ,  PH.  D. 

Linnaeus  was  a  great  scientist,  and  the  conquests  of  science  have  done 
more  to  advance  the  world  than  wars,  which  science  may  yet  render  im- 
possible. It  was  thirty  years  of  scientific  research  in  Germany  that  gave 
us  artificial  indigo.  It  was  pure  scientific  research  that  led  Moissan,  Cowles 
and  Acheson  to  discover  independently  an  abrasive  substance  of  a  hardness 
between  the  diamond  and  the  sapphire;  and  then  Moissan  by  scientific 
deduction  worked  out  the  genesis  of  the  hardest  and  most  fearless  of  gems, 
which,  though  obtained  only  in  the  form  of  powder,  was  still  the  diamond. 
Within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  we  have  seen  air,  oxygen  and  hydrogen 
liquefied,  giving  us  temperatures  absolutely  unknown  in  nature  before,  and 
also  the  electric  furnace,  giving  an  extreme  heat  such  as  has  perhaps  never 
existed,  unless  it  be  on  the  surface  of  the  sun. 

Jade,  the  Chinese  stone,  has  been  known  in  China  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years.  Some  believe  that  it  was  known  to  a  prehistoric  race  the 
existence  of  which  was  almost  unknown  to  the  Chinese,  and  whose  only 
records  extant  are  found  as  we  find  the  evidences  left  of  the  mound-builders, 
who  passed  away  before  the  advent  of  the  white  man  in  North  America.  It 
was  not  until  1866  that  Damour,  a  scientist,  separated  jade  into  two  distinct 
minerals,  nephrite  and  jadeite;  and  one  of  those  into  two  varieties,  jadeite 
and  chloromelanite  —  facts  unknown  to  the  Chinese,  though  they  apparently 
knew  and  understood  every  tiny  fragment  they  had  ever  seen  of  this  mineral. 
It  was  the  scientist  who  took  three  red  stones  belonging  to  the  King  of 
Burmah  or  to  the  Emperor  of  China,  and  proved  to  him  that  one  was  a 
ruby,  one  was  a  spinel,  and  the  third  a  tourmaline,  and  not  all  rubies,  as 
they  had  been  regarded  for  a  century  or  more  previously. 

Moses  was  the  first  great  systematizer,  and  his  original  assemblage  of 
the  people  in  tens,  hundreds  and  thousands,  is  carried  out  in  the  military 
systems  of  to-day,  and  is  again  reflected  in  our  own  and  in  the  monetary 
systems  of  many  of  the  European  nations,  and  more  especially  in  that  indis- 
pensable and  scientific  international  system  of  weights  and  measures,  the 
metric  system.  It  was  Alexander  who  conquered  the  eastern  world,  bring- 
ing back  with  him  mucli  refinement,  and  possibly  also  the  valuable  and 
industrious  silkworm;  and  it  was  he  also  who  discovered  that  the  carrying 
powers  of  his  camels  were  doubled  if  he  employed  a  gold  medium  of  exchange 
instead  of  silver.  Caesar,  in  his  attempt  to  conquer  the  world,  did  much 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  43 

toward  the  dissemination  of  education  and  civilization,  from  which  Rome 
greatly  benefited. 

Napoleon  upturned  and  readjusted  the  treasuries  of  a  number  of  king- 
doms, duchies,  cloisters  and  churches  in  Europe;  and,  even  though  his 
regime  was  attended  by  frightful  loss  of  life,  marked  and  permanent  improve- 
ment has  followed  it.  But  it  was  La  Sage,  a  scientist,  who  compiled  a 
great  work  for  Napoleon,  from  which  he  learned  what  noble  families  had 
lived  in  all  times,  and  what  campaigns  had  been  fought  by  the  various 
conquerors;  and  it  was  a  thorough  study  of  La  Sage's  work  that  had  much 
to  do  with  giving  Napoleon  an  idea  as  to  what  worlds  others  had  conquered, 
and  what  parts  of  this  world  were  left  for  him  to  subdue. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  it  was  one  of  our  New  York  scientists, 
Dr.  Melvil  Dewey,  who  introduced  the  card  catalogue  system  of  catalo- 
guing books,  which  led  to  the  present  system  of  keeping  books  by.  the  loose- 
leaf  system. 

It  would  be  easy  to  mention  many  who  have  materially  assisted  in  the 
advancement  and  organization  of  the  multifarious  affairs  of  mankind;  but 
the  other  and  lower  creations  of  nature  outnumbered  mankind  many  thou- 
sand times,  and  the  co-ordination  of  scientific  nomenclature  covering  this 
vast  domain  is  due  to  the  great  Carl  von  Linne.  Until  his  time,  an  animal 
was  known  as  a  deer  in  English,  a  Hirsh  in  German,  a  cerf  in  French,  and  by 
fifty  other  names  in  as  many  different  languages.  By  applying  two  or  three 
words  as  a  name  to  every  creature  that  flies  in  the  heavens  above,  that  dwells 
in  the  earth  beneath  or  in  the  waters  under  the  earth,  he  made  it  possible 
for  the  scientist,  whether  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  Greenland,  in  New 
York,  or  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  know  not  only  just  what  living  form 
was  referred  to,  but  also  to  understand  immediately  to  just  what  genus, 
class,  species  or  variety,  this  living  organism  belongs. 

The  Linnsean  system  has  also  greatly  aided  scientific  classification  in 
natural  history,  which,  in  connection  with  medicine,  has  given  us  the  con- 
necting link  in  the  science  of  biology  and  bacteriology.  The  Linnaean 
system  compares  with  the  natural  history  of  to-day  as  alchemy  does  with 
chemistry,  as  astrology  and  fortune-telling  with  astronomy  and  medicine  of 
the  present  time. 

It  is  strange  that,  as  well-planned  and  admirable  and  successful  as  the 
Linnsean  system  is  when  applied  to  the  nomenclature  of  animate  objects, 
it  was  absolutely  rejected  by  the  then  mineralogists  and  chemists,  as  the 
chemical  equivalents  and  the  structure  are  frequently  better  expressed  by  a 
single  term  than  they  would  be  by  a  binominal  system. 

Had  a  Linnsean  system  existed  when  Adam  and  Eve  were  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  there  would  be  no  dispute  to-day  as  to  whether  the  "apple"  which 


44  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

caused  their  expulsion  from  the  Garden  was  the  identical  kind  of  apple 
that  has  caused  so  many  boys  to  be  driven  from  gardens  and  orchards 
wherein  they  trespass  to-day,  or  whether  it  was  a  pomegranate,  an  orange, 
a  lemon,  or  some  other  fruit  of  which  we  have  no  knowledge.  If  Noah  had 
known  a  Linnaean  system  when  he  took  his  animals  into  the  ark,  and  had 
so  named  them,  how  helpful  that  would  be  to  us  to-day!  There  would  not 
be  the  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  few  who  still  maintain  that  evidences  of 
the  flood  are  to  be  found  in  fossil  remains,  since  these  would  belong  to  those 
animals  that  were  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  great  flood. 

We  have  recorded  a  history  of  the  past,  to-day  we  have  heard  much  of 
Linnaeus  and  his  time:  let  us  speak  now  of  the  present.  For  a  quarter  of  a 
century  it  has  been  our  pleasure  to  know  one  of  the  most  ardent  disciples  of 
Linnaeus  that  has  lived  in  our  land;  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  untiring  zeal, 
his  keen  judgment,  his  constant  application,  it  is  a  question  whether  we 
would  be  assembled  to-day  to  dedicate  this  bridge  to  the  memory  of  Linnaeus. 
We  remember  twenty-five  years  ago  when  he  first  appeared  before  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  it  is  almost  that  long  ago  that  he  first  suggested 
a  botanical  garden.  The  Botanical  Garden  undoubtedly  influenced  the 
Zoological  Park,  and  each  successive  scientific  institution  has  strengthened 
the  others,  so  that,  as  science  stands  united  to-day,  New  York  is  perhaps 
and  will  long  remain  one  of  the  leading  scientific  cities  in  the  country,  if  not 
the  foremost;  and  no  one  more  than  our  esteemed  President  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  Director  of  the  Botanical  Garden,  Dr.  N. 
L.  Britton,  has  assisted  in  the  unification  and  the  advancement  of  our  greatest 
Academy  of  Sciences.  Dr.  Britton  was  the  pioneer  with  the  Botanical 
Garden.  Professor  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  another  disciple  of  Linnaeus, 
was  the  pioneer  in  the  Zoological  Park,  which  has  been  so  ably  conducted 
and  carried  on  through  that  indefatigable  worker,  Dr.  W.  T.  Hornaday, 
who  brought  to  his  task  a  world-wide  experience  of  animals,  their  habitats 
and  their  characters.  Therefore  it  seems  eminently  fitting  that  this  bridge 
should  form  a  connecting  link  between  these  two  Siamese  Twins,  as  it  were, 
of  botany  and  zoology  in  the  United  States. 

It  is  science  that  gives  us  this  well-ordered  Bronx  Botanical  Garden, 
which,  beautiful  as  it  is,  is  a  living  botanical  exposition,  made  possible 
through  the  organization  of  Linnaeus,  the  energy,  industry  and  intelligence 
of  a  Britton,  the  generosity  of  the  founders  and  its  trustees  and  the  encour- 
agement of  our  great  city  of  New  York. 

Although  historic  sites  and  buildings  may  be  marked  with  tablets  or  with 
monuments  of  stones,  yet  it  was  Nero  who  removed  the  Greek  inscription, 
and  placed  his  own,  over  the  architrave  of  the  Parthenon.  In  1881  we  were 
surprised  to  see  some  stone-cutters  removing  from  within  the  laurel  wreaths 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  45 

on  the  arches  of  the  bridge  across  the  River  Seine  the  raised  letter  N  placed 
there  by  Napoleon  III,  and  a  few  days  later  to  see  them  incise  the  letters 
R.  F.  (Republique  Fran9aise)  where  the  N  had  formerly  been. 

The  value  of  preserving  historic  sites  or  commemorating  historic  events 
by  indestructible  means,  such  as  medals  or  engraving  in  stone  or  metal, 
has  always  served  as  a  great  benefit  to  those  who  were  to  follow.  A  simple 
tablet  on  the  summit  of  the  Jura  Mountains  tells  one  when,  where  and  how 
the  great  Napoleon  crossed  those  mountains.  A  tablet  in  Russia  relates 
that  Napoleon  entered  Russia  at  this  point  with  seven  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  men,  and  less  than  a  year  later  returned  with  an  army  of  only  a 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand,  having  lost  six  hundred  thousand. 

The  use  of  metal  and  baked  tiles  for  the  perpetuation  of  portraits  and 
historic  events  forms  one  of  the  most  feasible  and  enduring  means.  It  is 
due  to  the  coins  and  the  medals  that  have  been  struck  since  about  the 
seventh  century  B.C.  that  we  have  an  almost  unbroken  line,  for  the  past 
twenty-four  centuries,  of  portraits  and  history;  and  to  Assyrian  baked 
tablets,  that  we  have  some  four  thousand  years  of  history  recorded. 

There  should  be  a  most  stringent  law,  a  national  law,  rigidly  enforced, 
for  the  punishment  of  any  vandal  who  destroys,  either  wantonly  or  for  the 
purpose  of  loot,  any  monument,  as,  for  instance,  the  Andr6  Monument  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson  and  the  tablet  marking  the  Slocum  disaster. 

It  is  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preser- 
vation Society  to  take  part  in  this  historic  event,  and  it  is  its  official  function 
to  describe  accurately  the  event  in  its  Annual  Report  edited  by  our  able 
Secretary,  Edward  Hagaman  Hall,  and  published  by  order  of  the  Legislature 
of  this  State.  So  the  record  of  this  event  will  appear  in  series  with  that  of 
the  dedication  of  Stony  Point  as  a  park;  the  re-dedication  of  the  Andre" 
Monument;  the  preservation  of  the  Palisades;  the  McGowan's  Pass  tablet; 
more  recently  the  acceptance  of  the  gift  of  three  miles  of  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  ravines  on  the  continent,  containing  three  fine  waterfalls,  presented 
to  our  State  by  the  Honorable  William  Pryor  Letchworth,  for  which  the 
Society  is  to  act  as  a  Trustee;  and  the  State's  acquisition  of  Watkins  Glen. 


46  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  SWEDISH 
SOCIETIES  OF  NEW  YORK. 

EMIL  F.  JOHNSON. 

I  do  not  intend  te  encroach  upon  your  time  by  attempting  to  make  a 
long  speech,  but  I  consider  it  my  duty  as  president  of  the  United  Swedish 
Societies  to  express  to  you,  Mr.  President,  and  to  the  members  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences,  our  gratitude  for  the  opportunity  you  have 
given  us  to  take  part  in  honoring  the  memory  of  our  distinguished  country- 
man Linnaeus,  whom  we  are  used  to  call  the  "Flower  King  of  the  North." 
To  be  sure,  our  participation  in  this  celebration  is  limited  to  the  assistance 
given  by  our  singing  societies  and  to  the  presence  of  a  goodly  number  of  our 
people  in  the  park.  The  Swedish  minister  to  Washington,  Mr.  Lagercrantz, 
is  also  with  us,  and  I  take  this  opportunity  to  convey  to  you,  Your  Excellency, 
our  appreciation  of  the  interest  you  have  shown  by  coming  to  New  York 
to-day.  Our  consul  and  vice-consul  are  also  with  us. 

I  saw  a  statement  in  a  paper  a  few  days  ago  to  the  effect  that  Swedes 
in  New  York  have  presented  this  beautiful  bridge  to  the  city.  I  only  wish 
that  such  were  the  case;  but  unfortunately  we  are  only  about  fifty  thousand 
strong  in  this  neighborhood.  Such  a  gift  might  well  be  possible  out  West, 
where,  as  you  know,  most  of  the  Swedish  immigrants  settle,  but  not  here. 
Indeed,  there  are  parts  of  the  West  and  Northwest,  where  for  miles  upon 
miles  you  will  find  Swedish  settlements  almost  exclusively,  and  all  in  pros- 
perous condition.  In  Chicago  the  Swedes  have  even  erected  a  statue  to 
the  memory  of  Linnaeus,  a  duplicate  of  one  erected  in  Stockholm  just  twenty 
years  ago  to-day.  I  remember  the  date  well,  because  I  took  part  in  the 
celebration,  being  a  student  in  Stockholm  at  the  time. 

It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  us  Swedes,  that  Linnaeus,  whose  memory  is 
to-day  honored  all  over  the  globe,  was  a  man  of  peace.  Every  one  has  heard 
of  our  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Charles  XII,  not  to  mention  the  old  vikings ; 
but  our  great  scientific  men  —  such  as  Linnaeus,  Berzelius,  Scheele,  Celsius, 
Edlund,  Rudbeck  and  others  —  are  known  only  to  a  select  few.  Even  John 
Ericsson  the  great  engineer,  whose  statue  has  been  erected  in  Battery  Park 
by  the  city  of  New  York,  is  remembered  and  honored  only  on  account  of 
his  ship  of  war,  the  "Monitor."  The  fact  that  he  invented  the  fire-engine, 
the  propeller,  the  solar  engine,  the  hot-air  engine  and  other  wonderful 
machinery,  is  well-nigh  forgotten,  though  we  have  in  the  city  to-day  about 
fifteen  thousand  pumping  engines  run  with  heated  air  on  Ericsson's  prin- 
ciples, and  the  solar  engine  is  being  used  more  and  more  in  California. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  47 

His  work  was  work  of  peace  of  the  very  highest  character,  and  to  be  com- 
mended as  such. 

There  is  one  part  of  Linnseus's  life-work  which  may  not  have  been 
referred  to  to-day,  and  that  is  his  work  as  an  archeologist.  While  pursuing 
his  studies  in  botany  and  zoology,  Linnaeus  naturally  traveled  a  great  deal 
around  the  country;  in  doing  this,  he  made  careful  notes  of  the  mounds, 
runestones  and  other  marks  left  by  the  ancient  inhabitants,  which  marks  are 
very  abundant  all  over  Sweden.  In  fact,  his  writings  on  this  subject  have 
formed  a  basis  for  the  very  interesting  archeology  of  Sweden.  Personally, 
I  have  derived  much  more  pleasure  from  this  part  of  Linnseus's  writings 
than  I  have  from  the  others,  although  once  upon  a  time  I  did  know  the  Latin 
names  of  a  few  hundred  plants.  Once  more  I  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  in 
behalf  of  the  Swedes  of  New  York,  and  I  will  close  by  proposing  a  cheer  for 
the  memory  of  Linnaeus,  and  will  ask  the  singers  to  assist  me  with  a  gen- 
uine Swedish  hurrah. 


At  the  close  of  the  exercises  at  the  Bridge,  many  people,  in  spite  of  the 
lateness  of  the  hour,  walked  through  the  New  York  Zoological  Park  to  note 
American  animals  known  to  Linnaeus.  The  party  was  under  the  guidance 
of  Director  Hornaday  and  Messrs.  Ditmars,  Beebe  and  Blair. 

In  the  evening  the  literary  exercises  of  the  day  were  continued  at  the 
Museum  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Eastern  Parkway, 
Brooklyn.  After  brief  opening  remarks  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Lucas,  Director  of 
the  Museum,  the  following  address  was  read. 


A  SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  CARL  VON  LINNE. 
By  EDWARD  L.  MORRIS. 

There  is  something  of  human  interest  in  the  personal  side  of  any  one's 
life,  if  we  but  know  an  avenue  of  approach.  Such  avenues  are  closed  to 
most  of  us  for  most  lives.  The  public  careers  of  great  men  are  matters  of 
recorded  or  current  history.  The  professional  activities  and  writing  of  men 
of  science  are  open  to  those  interested  along  similar  lines;  but  often  there 
is  little  opportunity  to  know  the  personal  and  characteristic  things  which 
are  the  real  foundation  and  basis  of  success  among  men. 

Our  presiding  officer  has  elsewhere  said,  "In  some  ways  the  career  of 
Linnaeus  reminds  one  of  a  good  old-fashioned  fairy  story  in  which  the  hero 
continually  is  being  provided  for.  Time  after  time,  Linnaeus  was  taken  up 


48  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

by  some  man  of  wealth  who  practically  supported  him  and  gave  him  oppor- 
tunities for  study  and  research. 

"Either  genius  was  rarer  in  those  days  than  now,  or  else  it  received  more 
substantial  recognition." 

In  1706,  Nils  Linnaeus,  a  Swedish  pastor,  and  his  bride  Christina,  began 
their  home  life  in  his  parish  in  Rashult  in  Smaland  in  southern  Sweden. 
About  their  cottage  he  had  planted  a  garden  of  flowers  according  to  a  taste 
developed  while  living  with  an  uncle.  In  this  garden  the  young  bride  took 
special  delight,  only  to  grieve  sorely  at  the  effects  of  the  heavy  winter  frosts, 
but  reacting  to  the  hope  and  anticipation  of  the  awakening  of  spring.  Here 
were  more  than  four  hundred  species  of  exotic  plants.  For  such  a  latitude 
and  for  such  a  period  of  the  world's  history,  this  was  a  most  unusual  col- 
lection. 

In  the  midst  of  the  spring  advent  of  the  flowers,  in  May,  1707,  there  was 
born  a  son  in  the  home  of  the  parish  leader.  He  was  baptized  "Carl." 
To-day  we  celebrate,  in  honor  and  praise,  the  birth  of  Carl  Linncsus. 

The  following  year,  the  family  moved  to  Stenbrohult,  to  which  were  also 
removed  most  of  the  plants  from  the  garden  at  Rashult. 

As  soon  as  the  boy  Carl  could  walk,  he  daily  visited  the  new  garden  with 
his  father,  where  he  was  the  more  attracted  to  the  flowers  because  in  his 
babyhood  the  parents  had  often  attracted  his  attention  by  many  bright 
blossoms.  A  little  later  he  had  a  bed  for  his  own  flowers,  which  he  chose 
from  the  main  garden.  Later  still,  he  was  given  a  plot  for  his  own  garden 
beside  his  father's.  At  four  years  of  age,  after  a  visit  to  a  country  fair,  he 
so  persisted  in  asking  questions  that  he  practically  knew  all  his  father  could 
tell  him, —  the  Swedish  names  and  the  uses  of  the  native  plants. 

Typically,  his  mother  delighted  in  the  boy's  absorption  in  the  flowers 
(she  was  fond  of  them  too),  besides,  this  often  kept  the  boy  occupied  for 
hours, —  an  important  item  in  the  daily  program  of  the  young  housekeeping 
mother. 

Boylike,  oftener  than  not  Carl  forgot  the  answers  to  his  questions.  His 
father  noticed  this  and  called  the  habit  mischievous,  and  refused  to  answer 
further  questions  till  the  boy  promised  to  remember  what  was  told  him. 
This  parental  training  became  of  the  highest  value  to  the  future  Linnaeus. 

Many  of  the  relatives  of  Nils  Linnaeus  were  ordained  to  the  service  of  the 
church.  It  was  in  the  wife's  heart  to  have  their  son  be  the  same.  But 
he  was  averse  to  all  reading  not  related  to  natural  history  or  more  particu- 
larly to  botany.  His  chief  activity  was  to  wander  over  the  fields  and 
through  the  woods,  bring  home  every  new  species  he  found,  plant  some, 
and  dry  and  preserve  others.  With  these  he  brought  in  several  weeds, 
which  caused  no  end  of  trouble  to  his  father,  as  they  spread  to  the  beds  of 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNJEUS  49 

exotic  plants.     He  became  so  proficient  in  his  knowledge  of  the  local  plants 
that  the  neighbors  all  called  him  "the  little  Botanicus." 

The  story  goes,  that  one  day  his  mother  found  that  he  had  even  appro- 
priated her  much-treasured  Bible  in  which  to  press  some  new-found  flowers, 
and  she  began  gently  rating  him  for  this. 

"Dear  child,"  she  said,  "you  must  not  put  herbs  and  flowers  in  my 
beautiful  book.  It  would  be  quite  a  sin  to  spoil  the  Holy  Bible." 

"Pray  forgive  me,  mother!  But  these  are  the  most  beautiful  flowers  I 
have  ever  seen,  so  I  thought  I  would  preserve  them  best  of  all,  for  I  have 
heard  both  you  and  father  say  that  the  Bible  is  the  Book  of  Life;  and 
surely,  if  I  put  the  flowers  between  its  leaves,  they  will  retain  their  color, 
the  Bible  keeping  them  alive  forever." 

"  Child,  when  we  call  the  Bible  the  Book  of  Life,  we  mean  by  that,  not 
the  life  we  see  before  us,  but  the  spiritual  growth  of  our  souls,  for  every 
thought  we  think  is  a  flower  culled  in  the  garden  of  our  soul.  There,  as 
on  earth,  grow  many  various  plants,  some  of  wondrous  beauty,  and  others 
stained  with  sin.  But  every  time  we  humbly  read  in  the  Sacred  Writ,  a  seed 
is  sown  in  our  heart,  which  some  day  will  bloom,  and  bear  holy  fruit." 

"How  beautifully  you  talk,  mother! " 

"Well,  you  must  diligently  read  your  Bible,  and  in  your  heart  will  grow 
the  seed  of  goodness  and  humility;  but  I  fear"  — 

"What  do  you  fear,  mother?" 

"  I  fear  you  love  the  fair  flowers  of  the  earth  too  much  to  care  for  the  seeds 
that  were  watered  with  tears  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane." 

"O  mother!  no,  I  won't  forget  my  Bible.  But  when  I  see  a  flower 
I  think  this  way,  '  Why  does  God  make  the  cold,  damp  earth  grow  such 
lovely  creatures  with  such  beautiful  colors  ?  Why,  if  not  to  make  us  happy 
with  the  sight?'  And  then  I  almost  fancy  the  flowers  saying  with  their 
petal  lips,  'Look  at  us,  and  think  how  kind  and  good  is  God.'  O  mother! 
every  flower  must  have  been  a  thought  by  God." 

"Why,  how  you  speak,  child!    Well,  yes,  you  are  right:  it  must  be  so." 

When  Carl  was  ten  years  old,  after  an  unfortunate  experience  with  a 
private  tutor,  he  was  sent  to  Wexio,  the  capital  of  the  diocese,  to  the  grammar 
and  higher  grades.  But  here  he  failed  because  there  was  no  teacher  to  lead 
and  inspire  him,  but  only  those  to  drive.  The  boy  mentally  refused  to  be 
driven.  Shortly  he  was  put  again  under  a  tutor  somewhat  better  than  the 
former  one;  but  in  every  subject  except  Nature  he  was  considered  a  dunce. 

In  eight  years  his  father,  with  sorrow  in  his  heart,  became  convinced  that 
Carl  never  would  make  a  preacher.  His  mother,  realizing  this  also,  rued 
the  love  she  had  felt  for  the  flowers  and  the  interest  on  his  part  which  she 
sadly  had  fostered,  and  with  pique  declared  to  her  second  son,  Samuel,  that 
he  never  should  devote  himself  to  so  useless  and  wasteful  a  study  as  flowers. 


50  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

In  the  words  of  another,  "In  this  great  distress,  Pastor  Linnaeus  called 
Xipon  a  friend  Dr.  Rothman,  a  physician  of  Wexio  who  also  taught  physiol- 
ogy and  botany  in  the  school.  His  verdict,  however,  was,  'Well,  a  preacher 
Carl  certainly  never  will  be,  but  he  might  become  a  famous  physician;  and 
that  profession  will  feed  a  man  as  well  as  the  church.  Your  son  is  far 
advanced  in  natural  history,  and,  without  gainsaying,  the  foremost  scholar 
in  botany.  If  you  will  permit,  I  will  take  him  into  my  house :  he  shall  eat 
at  my  table  gratis,  and  I  will  myself  read  with  him  during  the  year  that 
remains  before  he  can  proceed  to  a  university.'  It  need  not  be  told  how 
gladly  father  and  son  accepted  this  generous  and  well-timed  offer." 

Carl  now  removed  to  Dr.  Rothman;  and  this  learned  gentleman  with 
great  discernment  made  it  clear  to  his  protege  of  what  great  advantage,  and 
how  indispensable,  were  Latin  and  Greek  for  the  study  of  medicine,  botany 
and  natural  history. 

The  dead  languages  now  became  endowed  with  a  living  new  interest, 
and  instead  of  Justinius  and  Cicero,  he  studied  with  enthusiasm  Pliny's 
"  Natural  History,"  performing  thus  a  double  study  at  the  same  time. 

Dr.  Rothman  grew  daily  more  and  more  attached  to  his  pupil,  who 
made  amazing  progress,  and  whose  transcendent  genius  became  more  and 
more  evident.  He  found  great  delight  in  guiding  the  young  naturalist  in 
his  studies,  but  soon  found,  with  little  surprise  and  no  envy,  that  his  pupil 
far  outstripped  himself,  for  Linnaeus  could  acquire  no  more  from  him. 

Linnaeus  must  enter  the  university,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  get  the 
certificate  from  the  Wexio  school.  It  was  framed  in  very  quaint  and  signifi- 
cant words;  and  it  is  curious  that  the  trope  of  a  tree,  carried  all  through, 
should  have  been  applied  to  the  future  of  the  professor  of  botany.  It  read 
as  follows:  "The  youths  in  schools  may  be  likened  unto  young  saplings  in  a 
plantation,  where  it  sometimes  happens,  although  seldom,  that  young  trees, 
despite  the  great  care  bestowed  on  them,  will  not  improve  by  being  en- 
grafted, but  continue  like  wild  untrained  stems,  and  when  they  are  finally 
removed  and  transplanted,  they  change  their  wild  nature,  and  become 
beautiful  trees  that  bear  excellent  fruit.  In  which  this  respect,  and  no  other, 
this  youth  is  now  promoted  to  the  University,  where,  perhaps,  he  may  come 
to  a  clime  that  will  favor  his  further  development."  WTith  this  recommen- 
dation Carl  Linnaeus  went  to  Lund,  the  southern  university  of  Sweden,  in 
1727. 

Here  Linnaeus  boarded  and  lodged  at  the  house  of  one  Strobaeus,  who 
lectured  in  the  university  on  natural  history,  geology,  and  botany.  He  was 
a  man  of  acknowledged  great  learning  in  these  sciences,  and  possessed  a 
large  private  collection  of  stones,  shell,  biids  and  dried  herbs.  At  this  house 
also  lived  a  German  student  of  medicine,  Koulas,  eight  years  the  senior  of 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNJ3US  51 

Linnaeus,  who  had  the  use  of  Strobaeus's  library,  and  who  took  upon  himself 
secretly  to  lend  his  young  friend  what  books  he  required  in  botany.  The  old 
mother  of  the  learned  host  had  observed  that  a  light  burned  in  the  small 
hours  of  the  night  in  Linnaeus's  room,  and,  fearing  fire,  told  her  son,  who 
quietly  one  night  went  up  to  Linnseus's  room  to  surprise  the  negligent  fellow, 
but  was  himself  surprised  to  find  the  student  in  the  dead  of  night  busily 
comparing  the  varying  opinions  of  the  greatest  botanists  of  his  time.  This 
surprise  won  the  admiration  of  the  teacher  and  his  affection,  and  he  at  oiice 
gave  Linnaeus  the  use  of  his  library  freely,  and  the  keys  to  his  collections,  and, 
like  Rothman,  took  the  liveliest  interest  in  the  gigantic  strides  of  progress. 

In  1728,  Linnaeus  changed  to  the  University  of  Upsala  to  study  under  the 
renowned  professors  Roberg  and  Rudbeck.  Here  Linnaeus  suffered  much 
from  poverty,  often  having  barely  enough  food  to  sustain  life.  At  length, 
under  dire  necessity,  he  was  about  to  start  for  home  to  his  father,  when  he 
made  a  last  visit  to  the  garden  of  the  university.  Just  then  there  was  a 
rare  exotic  plant  in  bloom.  Linnaeus  picked  the  flower,  and  was  sharply 
reprimanded  by  a  voice  behind  him.  He  explained  that  it  was  for  a  me- 
mento of  the  place,  which  he  was  now  obliged  to  leave  permanently.  This 
aroused  the  interest  and  question  of  the  dean,  as  it  proved,  —  Celsius,  senior. 
A  result  of  this  incident  was,  that  Celsius  saved  Linnaeus  to  science  then  and 
there  by  taking  him  to  his  own  house,  giving  him  new  and  large  opportunities 
at  the  university,  tiding  over  the  time  of  distress,  and  procuring  for  him 
opportunities  as  private  tutor  to  some  of  the  students  below  him. 

Here  Linnaeus  brought  out  his  little  thesis  developing  his  sexual  system 
of  grouping  plants.  From  now  on,  Linnaeus  had  a  constant  chain  of  promo- 
tions, spiced,  disagreeably  now  and  then,  by  jealousies  wrought  against  him, 
but  consisting  of  the  delights  of  extensive,  dangerous  and  economic  travels, 
new  positions  of  teaching  and  lecturing  at  home  and  abroad,  and  finally  the 
full  chair  of  botany  at  the  University  of  Upsala. 

His  greatest  and  ultimate  joy  was  in  the  knowledge  that  his  system  of 
plant  relationships  became,  before  his  death,  the  commonly  accepted  system 
of  the  civilized  world. 

To  his  credit  be  it  recorded  again,  that  his  system  is  the  foundation  of  all 
modern  concepts  of  the  sexual  evolution  and  differentiation,  and  consequent 
relationships,  of  all  known  plants  and  animals,  and  especially  of  their  nomen- 
clature. 

His  personal  and  professional  interest  were  so  broad  as  to  include  special 
studies  in  insects  and  birds  and  in  general  zoology,  as  time  allowed  diver- 
gence from  his  life-work  in  botany.  His  writings  covered  the  living  things 
of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds,  and  comprised  some  seventy  or  more  titles. 

His  personality  was  of  the  kind  which  inspired  every  pupil  coming  under 


52  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

him  to  branch  out  for  himself  in  some  line  of  natural  history.  His  students 
became  scattered  throughout  the  world. 

Up  to  the  last,  and  as  much  as  his  failing  health  would  allow,  Linnaeus 
kept  up  a  lively  and  progressive  interest  in  his  science. 

Finally,  tired  of  life,  and  forgetful  of  all  honors  which  had  been  so  keen  a 
delight  to  him,  he  passed  beyond  peacefully  on  the  10th  of  January,  1778. 

His  works  and  his  name  live  forever. 


At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Morris's  address  a  musical  selection  was 
rendered  by  the  Glee  Club  of  the  United  Swedish  Societies,  after  which  the 
following  address  was  delivered. 


LINNAEUS  AND  AMERICAN  NATURAL  HISTORY. 
By  FREDERIC  A.  LUCAS. 

I  presume  that  the  question  first  in  the  minds  of  many  present  is,  Why 
have  we  met  this  evening?  why  should  we  celebrate  the  two  hundredth 
birthday  of  Linnaeus? 

In  a  general  way,  Linnaeus  may  be  said  to  have  systematized  the  study 
of  natural  history,  and  arranged  its  known  facts  in  an  orderly  manner;  but 
his  special  claim  to  our  gratitude  is  the  invention  or  perfection  of  what  is 
called  the  "binomial  system"  of  nomenclature,  that  is,  the  use  of  the  double 
name  for  each  species  of  plant  or  animal.  This  may  seem  a  small  matter. 
In  fact,  those  who  ask  Why  doesn't  every  animal  have  a  common  name  ? 
might  think  they  had  reason  to  feel  anything  but  grateful;  but  it  was  really 
one  of  the  greatest  advances  made  in  natural  history.  For  in  science  it  is  not 
enough  to  accumulate  facts,  they  must  be  set  in  order,  or  classified,  so  as 
to  be  available.  In  fact,  Huxley  termed  science  "classified  knowledge." 
Before  the  day  of  Linnaeus,  animals  were  mainly  known  by  their  descriptions 
or  their  vernacular  name.  The  lion,  for  instance,  would  be  called  the 
"great  tan-colored  cat  with  a  mane;"  and,  in  order  to  indicate  what  species 
were  related,  it  would  be  necessary  to  specify  them  each  and  all. 

As  the  rising  tide  of  commerce  of  the  eighteenth  century  brought  to 
Europe  scores  of  animals  previously  unknown,  the  number  of  recognized 
species  increased  so  rapidly  that  it  promised  to  be  a  difficult  matter  to  keep 
track  of  them.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Linnaeus  devised  the  plan  of  apply- 
ing to  each  animal  a  general  or  generic  name  which  should  indicate  the 
immediate  group  to  which  the  animal  belonged,  and  a  special  or  specific 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  53 

name  to  apply  to  that  particular  kind  of  animal  alone.  And  so  binomial 
nomenclature  was  born.  It  has  been  claimed  that  Linnaeus  was  not  the 
first  to  use  the  binomial  system,  but,  if  not,  he  was  certainly  the  first  to 
employ  it  consistently  and  to  frame  rules  relating  to  such  use.  Linnaeus 
wrote  in  Latin  not  as  a  matter  of  affectation,  but  because  Latin  was  the 
common  language  of  culture  and  science,  and  to  this  day  many  naturalists 
still  write  descriptions  of  new  species  in  Latin,  or  preface  their  accounts 
with  a  brief  diagnosis  in  that  language.  Had  he  written  in  Swedish,  his 
native  tongue,  his  audience  would  have  been  a  small  one,  probably  limited 
to  his  native  land;  as  it  was,  his  works  were  understood  by  all  the  natu- 
ralists of  the  day.  Hence  his  scientific  names  which  were  Latin  names 
are,  like  a  gold  coin,  current  the  world  over,  while  the  so-called  "popular 
name "  is  restricted  in  its  use,  and  circulates  only  in  the  country  where  it 
is  coined. 

But  Linnaeus  did  much  more  than  devise  a  scheme  of  nomenclature :  he 
systematically  defined  each  and  every  group  of  plants  and  animals  with 
which  he  dealt,  giving  their  chief  characters  in  a  few  brief  words;  and  the 
small  groups,  or  genera,  he  combined  in  large  divisions  termed  "orders." 
It  matters  not  that  the  genera  of  Linnaeus  have  since  been  divided  and  sub- 
divided many  times,  the  underlying  principle  of  assigning  certain  definite 
characters  to  each  animal  remains  the  same. 

Linnaeus  was  a  born  classifier.  He  was  not  happy  until  he  had  duly  set 
in  order  the  facts  and  objects  that  came  under  his  notice;  and  while  he  did 
not,  it  is  true,  carry  this  to  the  extent  of  the  eccentric  Rafinesque,  who  made 
several  genera  and  species  of  thunder  and  lightning,  he  did  propose  a  system 
of  classification  for  diseases  wherein  they  were  duly  assigned  to  their  respec- 
tive families  and  genera. 

To  many  the  term  "classification  "  is  repellant.  It  seems  to  signify  some- 
thing with  which  the  ordinary  man  has  nothing  to  do,  when  really  it  is  some- 
thing with  which  every  one  is,  or  should  be,  concerned;  for  classification  is 
simply  arranging  things  in  their  proper  places,  and  putting  things  of  a  kind 
together.  And  the  man  who  puts  his  cuffs  in  one  place,  his  collars  in  another, 
and  arranges  his  shoes  in  a  row  on  the  top  shelf  of  a  closet,  is  a  classifier. 

The  naturalist  is  confronted  by  the  same  problem  as  a  general, —  that  of 
grouping  or  arranging  the  various  plants  or  animals  so  that  he  may  know 
where  each  one  is  to  be  found,  or  where  to  assign  any  new  form  that  may 
come  to  light.  For  an  army  is  not  merely  a  large  number  of  armed  men, 
it  is  an  orderly  assemblage  of  men  so  classed  and  grouped  that  they  can  be 
handled  by  one  man.  And  the  classification  of  the  animal  kingdom,  for 
example,  is  very  similar  to  that  of  an  army,  and  to  the  same  end, —  that  any 
one  may  put  into  its  proper  place  each  of  the  thousands  of  units  with  which 
he  has  to  do. 


54  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

And  Linnaeus  marshaled  plants  and  animals  as  a  general  marshals  his 
troops.  And  just  as  an  army  is  composed  of  thousands  of  individuals,  dis- 
tinguished as  officers  and  privates,  formed  into  companies,  regiments, 
brigades  and  divisions,  so  the  thousands  of  species  composing  the  animal 
kingdom  are  grouped  into  genera,  families,  orders,  classes  and  phyla.  In 
doing  this,  Linnaeus  instituted  many  minor  reforms;  for  example,  his  char- 
acters were  given  in  a  definite  order,  and  following  the  diagnosis  was  the 
synonymy,  or  list  of  names  under  which  the  animal  had  been  described, 
and  works  in  which  it  had  been  published.  He  was  the  first  to  strip 
natural  history  of  its  verbiage,  and  express  himself  in  clear  and  concise 
language,  and,  had  he  lived  to-day,  I  doubt  not  he  would  have  been  an 
advocate  of  spelling  reform. 

And  yet,  after  all,  this  scheme  of  nomenclature  is  but  a  part  of  the  ser- 
vice Linnaeus  rendered  to  natural  history.  It  is  not  merely  that  his  genius 
grasped  the  fact  that  nature  was  order,  and  that  he  devised  methods  for 
expressing  this  order;  his  zeal  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  gave  a  stimulus 
and  purpose  to  the  study  of  natural  history  that  it  had  never  felt  before.  In 
a  way,  his  influence  may  be  said  to  have  been  much  like  that  of  Agassiz  in 
the  United  States,  "He  imbued  [his  pupils]  with  his  own  intense  acquisitive- 
ness, reared  them  in  an  atmosphere  of  enthusiasm,  trained  them  to  close 
and  accurate  observation,  and  then  despatched  them  to  various  parts  of  the 
globe."  It  was  not  so  much  what  he  knew  himself  as  the  enthusiasm  he 
inspired  in  others,  that  made  him  a  power  felt  throughout  the  world. 

It  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  nomenclature,  or  the  naming  of 
plants  and  animals,  is  not  the  end  of  natural  history,  but  only  a  means  to  an 
end, —  a  fact  that  many  of  our  younger  naturalists  are  prone  to  overlook. 
Too  many  of  them  seem  to  think  that  the  great  aim  of  the  naturalist  is  to 
write  "new  species"  after  as  many  names  as  possible,  when,  to  my  mind  at 
least,  the  making  of  new  species  is  the  most  trivial  work  of  the  naturalist. 
It  is  important  work,  but  only  a  step  on  the  pathway  of  knowledge.  The 
real  problems  are,  Why  do  these  species  exist?  what  forces  have  brought 
them  into  existence?  and  what  are  their  relations  with  one  another? 

The  man  who  heard  an  overture  for  the  first  time,  after  listening  a  while 
turned  to  his  friend  with  the  query,  When  are  they  going  to  stop  tuning  up, 
and  commence  to  play  ?  So  you  may  wonder  why  I  chose  for  the  title  of  this 
address  "Linnaeus  and  American  Natural  History."  The  truth  is  that 
Linnaeus  is  so  intimately  connected  with  all  natural  history,  that  American 
natural  history  forms  but  a  small  part  of  the  whole.  And  yet  Linnseus  was 
intimately  concerned  with  the  development  of  American  natural  history  by 
his  acquaintance  with  those  men  of  science  who  were  gathering  and  making 
known  the  fauna  and  flora  of  this  continent ;  and  as  plants  and  animals  were 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  55 

brought  to  Europe,  most  of  them  found  their  way  to  Linnaeus,  and  many 
were  definitely  named  by  him  for  the  first  time.  The  twelfth  edition  of  the 
famous  "Systema  Naturae"  describes  210  mammals,  78  of  which  are  Ameri- 
can (including  under  that  term  North  and  South  America);  790  birds  are 
noted,  of  which  260  are  American;  and  88  of  the  124  reptiles  are  also 
American. 

We  think  of  Audubon,  Baird,  Coues  and  Ridgway  as  the  great  American 
ornithologists,  and  they  are  great;  but  a  glance  at  the  check-list  of  the 
American  Ornithologists'  Union  shows  how  prominent  a  part  was  played  by 
Linnaeus.  The  list  of  1889  gives  729  species  and  subspecies.  No  less  than 
202  of  these  were  named  by  Linnaeus ;  while  Audubon,  the  father  of  American 
ornithology,  named  but  33.  Twenty-five  bear  the  sign-manual  of  Coues, 
and  104  of  Ridgway.  We  must,  it  is  true,  remember  that  a  considerable 
number  of  the  birds  named  by  Linnaeus  are  species  common  to  Europe  and 
North  America,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
many  named  by  Ridgway  are  what  are  called  subspecies,  which  were  not 
recognized  in  the  day  of  Linnaeus. 

In  the  time  of  Linnaeus  there  were  few  naturalists  in  the  United  States, 
but  those  were  active;  and  that  they  approved  of  his  methods  is  shown  by  a 
letter  of  Collin  to  Linnaeus,  in  which  he  says,  "Your  system  I  can  tell  you 
obtains  much  in  America.  Mr.  Clayton  and  Dr.  Golden  at  Albany  are 
complete  professors,  as  is  Dr.  Mitchell  at  Urbana,  Va."  If  this  seems  a 
pitifully  small  number  to  us,  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  those  days 
naturalists  were  few  in  number,  and  natural  objects  studied  but  little;  and 
twelve  years  later  there  were  in  all  England  but  seven  botanists  who  were  fol- 
lowers of  the  Linnaean  methods.  Those  were  the  good  times  when  one  man 
knew  the  plants  and  animals  of  the  whole  globe.  Now  a  naturalist  may 
devote  his  entire  time  to  the  study  of  one  small  group,  and  the  names  of  other 
plants  and  animals  are  often  as  unfamiliar  to  him  as  they  are  to  the  average 
man. 

It  is  interesting,  almost  amusing,  to  see  how  little  an  idea  Linnaeus  and 
his  contemporaries  had  of  the  number  of  the  animals  in  the  world,  for  their 
most  liberal  estimates  were  very  far  from  the  facts.  And  this  lack  of  knowl- 
edge Linnaeus  realized  when  he  wrote  at  the  end  of  his  "Systema  Naturae," 
"Ea  qua  scimus  sunt  pars  minima  eorum  qua  ignoramus."  Thus  Ray  in 
1693,  a  short  time  before  Linnaeus  began  his  career,  estimated  that  there 
were  about  twenty  thousand  animals,  including  insects,  in  the  whole  world; 
and  this  was  a  very  liberal  estimate,  for  he  actually  described  less  than  four 
thousand. 

Now,  Ray  was  what  would  be  termed  to-day  a  "lumper,"  and  divided 
all  living  things  into  four  great  orders,  —  insects,  fishes,  birds  and  beasts, 


56  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

the  last  including  reptiles.  The  number  of  beasts  he  stated  to  be  a  hundred 
and  fifty,  adding  his  belief  that  "not  many  that  are  of  any  considerable  big- 
ness in  the  known  regions  of  the  world  have  escaped  the  cognizance  of  the 
curious."  The  birds  he  considered  might  reach  as  many  as  five  hundred. 
Contrast  this  with  the  more  than  twelve  thousand  species  so  far  described. 
The  number  of  insects  he  considered  might  possibly  reach  twenty  thousand 
species,  a  long  way  from  Sharp  and  Walsingham's  estimate  of  two  millions, 
or  Riley's  of  ten  millions.  Nowadays  this  estimate  of  Ray  provokes  a 
smile,  and  yet  we  can  find  an  example  of  much  greater  complacency  shown 
by  one  of  our  noted  scientific  men  of  much  more  recent  date;  for  Dr.  Coues 
about  1880  thought  that  few  mammals  remained  to  be  discovered  in  North 
America.  How  badly  he  was  mistaken  is  shown  by  Dr.  Allen's  review  in 
1894,  showing  that  the  number  of  recognized  species  had  more  than  doubled 
in  ten  years,  rising  from  181  in  1880  to  369  in  1890;  and  since  then  many 
more  have  been  described,  not  merely  small  creatures  that  to  the  ordinary 
observers  are  alike,  but  large  animals  like  bears  and  mountain-sheep. 

It  well  illustrates  the  activity  displayed  by  naturalists  of  that  day  to  say 
that  by  1758  the  number  of  known  mammals  and  reptiles  had  increased  to 
334  and  of  birds  to  790;  the  figures  in  the  one  case  being  an  advance  of 
a  hundred  per  cent  over  those  of  Ray,  and  in  the  other  of  fifty  per  cent. 

How  thoroughly  the  world  is  being  ransacked  for  new  animals,  and  how 
actively  naturalists  are  engaged  in  their  description,  may  be  gathered  from 
the  following  figures.  Up  to  1830,  species  to  the  number  of  71,598  had 
been  described,  by  1881  the  number  had  risen  to  211,553,  and  by  1896 
to  366,000;  more  than  150,000  species  having  been  described  in  fifteen 
years.  And  the  vast  and  ever-growing  host  of  living  things  —  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  the  birds  of  the  air,  the  fishes  that  are  in  the  water  about  the 
earth,  to  say  nothing  of  the  myriad  species  of  the  plant  world  —  are  each 
and  all  named  in  accordance  with  the  method  devised  by  Linnaeus  two 
centuries  ago.  Linnaeus  builded  better  than  he  knew,  and  his  work  has 
stood  the  test  of  time;  and  the  methods  he  devised  for  classifying  and 
naming  animals  are  those  in  use  now.  His  details  may  have  been  faulty, 
and  the  groups  he  considered  as  genera  may  have  been  divided  and  sub- 
divided, but  his  plan  stands. 

Scores  of  animals  known  to  Linnseus  have  been  swept  out  of  existence, 
and  thousands  that  he  never  knew  have  been  discovered;  but  the  stimulus 
given  by  him  to  the  study  of  nature  remains  unchecked,  and  to-day  in 
many  countries  the  members  of  learned  societies  have  assembled,  as  we  have 
gathered  here,  to  do  honor  to  the  great  Swedish  naturalist.  Sweden,  indeed, 
chanced  to  be  the  birthplace  of  this  great  man,  but  genius  is  not  fettered 
by  time  and  space,  belonging  rather  to  all  time  and  to  the  whole  world. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  57 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Lucas's  address  the  Glee  Club  sang  a  second 
selection,  and  then  the  evening  exercises  ended  with  an  exhibition,  by  means 
of  stereopticon  views,  of  plants  and  animals  known  to  Linnseus,  in  charge 
of  Dr.  A.  J.  Grout  and  Mr.  Lucas. 

In  the  Borough  of  Manhattan  the  day  was  rounded  out  at  the  New 
York  Aquarium,  Battery  Park,  where  the  New  York  Zoological  Society 
gave  a  reception  to  the  Academy  and  the  guests  of  the  occasion.  This 
function  likewise  commemorated  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  erection 
of  the  building  and  gave  the  first  view  of  the  collections  by  night.  A  fea- 
ture of  the  reception  was  the  exhibition  of  forms  of  marine  life  known  to 
Linnseus. 

******* 

An  important  and  highly  interesting  feature  of  the  Linnteus  celebration 
lay  in  the  following  documents  contributed  by  sister  societies  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  and  letters  written  by  several  of  the  Honorary  Members  of 
the  New  York  Academy.  Each  is  reproduced  here  in  the  language  in 
which  it  was  sent  in. 


Kungl.  Svenska  Vetenskapsakadexnien,  Stockholm. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  the  Royal  Swedish  Academy  of  Sciences  has 
received  in  these  days,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  most  gratifying  testi- 
monies of  the  great  admiration  and  esteem  in  which  our  first  president, 
Carl  von  Linn6,  is  held  by  all  those  who  love  and  study  nature.  Your  invi- 
tation has  also  been  accepted  with  great  gratitude :  it  was,  however,  received 
so  late  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  any  measures  for  participating  in  your 
celebration  in  such  a  way  as  would  have  been  desirable  to  us.  You  have 
expressed  your  wishes  that  we  should  contribute  an  official  document  appre- 
ciative of  the  work  of  Linne.  There  is,  however,  no  opportunity  now  to 
prepare  such  a  document,  and  we  must  thus  confine  ourselves  to  a  short 
statement  elucidating  our  opinion. 

There  were  many  great  naturalists  before  Linne,  if  we  count  from  Aris- 
toteles  to  Ray  and  Willughby.  There  was  certainly  a  great  amount  of 
knowledge,  also,  concerning  animals  and  plants;  but  there  was  no  system, 
no  scientific  names  or  terms.  The  facts  that  were  known  in  natural  history 
before  Linn6  were  thus  heaped  without  order,  or  with  very  little  order,  like 
a  pile  of  bricks  and  stones  at  a  building-place.  Linne  was  the  great  architect 
who  made  the  plan  for  the  erecting  of  the  building,  —  the  system;  and  he 
furnished  at  the  same  time  the  mortar  —  the  nomenclature  —  for  cementing 


58  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

together  the  stones  and  bricks.  It  may  be  admitted  that  more  practical  and 
more  beautiful  buildings  have  been  constructed  since  that  time  in  the  scien- 
tific world;  but  he  was  and  he  remains  the  great  master,  who,  with  bril- 
liant genius  and  admirable  skill,  first  taught  us  how  to  put  in  order  and 
systematically  arrange  the  material,  and  thus  make  a  true  science  of  natu- 
ral history.  This  has  also  been  universally  admitted;  and  the  renowned 
British  naturalist  Pennant  writes  about  this  part  of  Linnets  work,  "He 
hath  in  all  his  classes  given  philosophy  a  new  language;  hath  invented 
apt  names,  and  taught  the  world  a  brevity,  yet  a  fullness,  of  description 
unknown  to  past  ages." 

Many  persons  not  familiar  with  Linnets  work  have  believed  that  Linne 
contented  himself  with  describing  the  exterior  of  the  objects  in  nature,  and 
then  named  them.  Nothing  can  be  more  erroneous;  that  is  proved  by 
the  program  or  the  "Methodus"  which  Linne  published  even  in  the  first 
edition  of  "Systema  Naturae."  This  "Methodus"  is  in  its  thirty-eight 
short  paragraphs  the  fullest  and  richest  program  which  any  student  of 
natural  history  has  ever  published.  Referring  to  this  we  may  aflSrin  that  no 
branch  whatever  of  biological  study  was  neglected  or  underrated  by  Linne". 
He  grasped  fully  the  importance  of  the  study  of  anatomy,  and  he  advised 
his  scholars  to  dissect  animals  and  also  to  make  a  frequent  use  of  the  magnify- 
ing glass.  His  ardent  love  of  living  nature  made  him  an  excellent  biologist 
in  the  restricted  sense  of  that  word. 

Even  if  his  greatest  works  were  of  a  systematic  and  descriptive  nature, 
it  becomes  evident  to  any  one  who  has  only  a  superficial  knowledge  of  what 
Linne  has  written,  that  his  genius  extended  with  unbounded  flight  to  cover 
much  wider  areas  of  philosophical  speculation.  Although  he  did  not  see  it 
in  the  light  of  the  theory  of  evolution, —  it  was  indeed  far  too  early  for  that, — 
the  general  struggle  for  existence,  as  well  as  the  idea  of  sexual  selection,  was 
well  known  to  him.  And  many  other  problems  of  modern  times  did  he 
touch.  Let  us  only  recall  the  fact  that  to  the  pious  and  pure  mind  of  this 
great  naturalist  there  was  no  objection  to  place  homo  sapiens  as  the  first 
link  in  the  continuous  chain  of  organisms. 

His  works  may  shine  with  everlasting  brightness  through  all  ages,  as 
long  as  mankind  devotes  itself  to  the  study  of  nature.  His  name  is  cere 
perennius,  but  this  Academy  of  Sciences  and  the  whole  people  of  Sweden 
feel  deeply  and  are  gratefully  touched  by  the  honor  which  now  is  bestowed 
upon  our  great  compatriot,  when  his  name  is  given  to  a  monumental  bridge 
connecting  the  Botanical  Garden  and  the  Zoological  Park  in  New  York. 

K.  A.  H.  MORNER. 
CHR.  AURIVILLIUS,  Secretary. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  50 


Kungl.  Svenska  Vetenskapsakademien,  Upsala. 

The  Royal  Society  of  Sciences  at  Upsala  has  had  the  honor  and  the 
pleasure  of  receiving  your  letter,  informing  them  of  the  impressive  manner 
in  which  the  memory  of  their  great  countryman,  Carl  von  Linne",  will  be 
celebrated  in  the  metropolis  of  the  United  States. 

To  every  Swede,  and  especially  to  our  Society,  whose  honor  it  is  to  count 
Linn6  as  the  greatest  ornament  of  its  ranks,  it  is  highly  gratifying  to  see  that 
the  memory  of  the  man  whom  all  the  world  recognizes  as  princeps  botani- 
corum,  is  also  beyond  the  Atlantic  held  so  sacred  that  the  two  hundredth 
anniversary  of  his  birth  will  be  celebrated  there  with  the  same  love  and 
reverence  as  in  his  own  country.  And  we  fully  appreciate  the  delicate 
courtesy  which  has  led  you  to  immortalize  his  name  among  you  by  dedicat- 
ing to  him  the  beautiful  bridge  which  unites  your  Botanical  Garden  with 
the  Zoological  Park. 

The  necessity  of  answering  your  honored  letter  without  delay  renders  it 
impossible  for  the  Royal  Society  of  Sciences  to  enter  more  fully  on  the  epoch- 
making  significance  of  the  great  Linn6's  life  and  work.  Nor  do  we  consider 
it  necessary  for  us  to  do  so,  least  of  all  in  relation  to  your  renowned  Academy, 
which  takes  the  lead  in  the  grand  scientific  evolution  of  America.  Do  we 
not  both  realize  that  LirmS's  great  genius  has  laid  the  foundations  on  which 
botanical  science  goes  on  building  this  very  day?  We  both  realize  the 
unceasing  debt  of  gratitude  which  both  hemispheres  owe  to  his  immortal 
name.  And  so  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  we  celebrate  with  deep-felt 
enthusiasm  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth. 

We  offer  you  our  best  wishes  on  the  memorable  day,  and  congratulate 
you  on  your  successful  work  in  the  immense  field  of  learning. 

J.  A.  EKMAN,  Archbishop  of  Sweden, 

President. 
N.  C.  DUN£R,  Honorary  Secretary. 


Professor  Hans  Rensch,  Kristiania,  Norway. 
(Honorary  Member  of  the  Academy.) 

In  my  working-room  at  the  Geological  Survey  of  Norway  for  many 
years  I  have  had  only  one  portrait  hanging,  —  that  of  Linnaeus.  1  regard 
him  as  the  household  spirit  of  every  good  naturalist. 


60  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


The  Geological  Commission  of  Finland. 

On  behalf  of  the  Geological  Commission  of  Finland,  we  desire  first  of 
all  to  express  our  high  appreciation  of  the  honor  rendered  us  in  inviting  the 
Commission  to  take  part  in  the  celebration,  by  the  New  York  Academy, 
of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  Carl  von  Linne". 

We  are  proud  to  think  that  we  have  some  right  to  reckon  this  great 
memory  among  our  own,  because  Finland  in  Linnets  time  was  united  to 
Sweden;  and  a  large  number  of  us  Finlanders  are  still,  by  language  and 
descent,  connected  with  that  land.  Among  his  disciples  were  also  several 
of  our  countrymen;  and  the  interest  which  ever  since  that  period  has  existed 
here  for  the  study  of  botany,  and  also  of  zoology,  we  regard  as  a  direct 
inheritance  from  Linnets  time.  Not  only  naturalists  ex  professo  have  taken 
part  in  the  investigation  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  our  country,  but  also 
physicians,  clergymen,  government  officials  and  the  general  public,  who 
have,  ever  since  Linne' s  days,  constantly  and  with  zealous  eagerness  lent 
their  aid  to  the  augmentation  of  our  store  of  knowledge  in  things  pertaining 
to  natural  science. 

By  his  travels,  among  the  first  which  were  undertaken  for  a  purely 
scientific  purpose,  Linn6  has  also  given  an  example  to  the  numerous  explorers 
who  since  his  time  have  gone  out  from  northern  lands  —  among  those  born 
in  Finland  we  may  mention  Laxman  the  explorer  of  Siberia,  Castren  the 
linguist,  and  Baron  A.  E.  Nordenskiold,  the  geologist,  and  discoverer  of  the 
Northeast  passage  —  and  to  all  those  who,  after  Linnets  time,  have  united 
the  courage  and  energy  of  the  pioneer  with  scientific  thoroughness. 

We  geologists  remember  in  especial  that  Linne"  —  who  had  very  correct 
ideas  of  the  geological  sequence  among  the  silurian  rocks  of  Sweden  and 
the  importance  of  fossils,  and  whose  conception  of  the  geological  importance 
of  the  deluge  was  for  his  time  unusually  free  from  bias  —  can  be  reckoned 
among  the  early  pioneers  of  geology  and  as  a  predecessor  of  the  great  natu- 
ralists who  somewhat  later,  in  Scotland  and  Saxony,  laid  the  foundation- 
stones  of  scientific  geology.  He  had  a  notion  of  the  immense  length  of 
geological  time,  and  expressed  opinions  which  contained  the  germ  of  the 
actualistic  doctrine  that  afterwards  proved  so  fruitful  for  our  science. 

It  has  been  the  mission  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  nations  to  work  out  this 
doctrine  and  to  build  up  on  this  basis  the  science  of  geology.  When  in  our 
days  we  Northerners  see  without  jealousy  the  hegemony  in  natural  science 
pass  over  to  the  great  nations  which  have  continents  for  their  field  of  re- 
search, we  still  remember  with  pride  that  it  was  at  one  time  held  by  the 
little  nation  to  which  Linne"  belonged,  and  see  in  the  festival  with  which 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  61 

your  honored  society  celebrates  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth  a 
recognition  that  all  scientific  exploration  which  is  carried  on  in  an  unpreju- 
diced spirit  of  order  and  truth  is  a  work  in  the  spirit  of  Linne. 

Remembering  the  bond  which  thus  connects  your  great  nation  with  the 
small  countries  of  northern  Europe,  we  wish  especially  to  recall  to  you  one 
of  Linne's  disciples,  the  explorer  Pehr  Kalm,  professor  of  botany  at  the 
University  of  Abo  in  Finland.  He  was  very  highly  esteemed  by  his  great 
teacher.  In  Limit's  list  of  the  naturalists  of  his  time,  in  which  each  one 
was  distinguished  wTith  a  certain  rank,  Linne  himself  was  general,  and  Kalm 
had  the  rank  of  major.  Commissioned  by  the  Royal  Swedish  Academy 
of  Sciences,  Kalm,  as  is  well  known,  traveled  far  into  North  America,  and 
afterwards  published  an  uncommonly  accurate  and  minute  account  of  his 
observations,  which  was  translated  into  several  languages.  He  penetrated 
into  what  was  then  considered  the  Far  West,  to  the  Lake  of  Ontario;  and 
it  was  through  his  letters  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  which  Kalm  with  his 
usual  minuteness  described  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  that  this  great  wonder  of 
nature  first  became  more  generally  known. 

What  a  lapse  of  time  has  passed  since  that  visit  of  the  disciple  of  Linne" 
to  North  America !  —  a  time  measured  more  properly  by  the  wonderful 
development  of  civilization  than  by  the  number  of  years  that  have  gone  by. 
Over  this  vast  continent,  where  then  were  forests  and  prairies,  the  abodes  of 
the  wild  Indian,  has  the  white  man  now  built  his  homes,  and  it  is  strewn 
with  schools  in  which  the  children  learn  to  designate  the  plants  and  animals 
with  the  names  given  them  by  Linne.  Everywhere  there  are  universities 
in  which  the  study  of  natural  science  is  carried  on  with  the  aid  of  means 
and  appliances  wiiich  Linne  never  could  have  dreamed  of.  Where  Kalm, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  River,  found  a  town  which  he  says  was  then 
"about  half  as  big  again  as  Gothenburg  in  Sweden,"  lies  now  one  of  the 
greatest  cities  of  the  world;  and  in  this  city  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  Linne  is  now  celebrated  in  a  way  that  shows  that  his  memory  is  as  much 
honored  there  as  in  his  fatherland. 

What  a  proof  of  his  greatness,  what  a  guaranty  that  he  will  forever  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  master-minds  of  mankind ! 

J.  J.  SEDERHOLM. 

BENJ.  FROSTERUS. 


Senaat  der  Rijks-Universiteit  te  Leiden. 

The  Leiden  University  Senate  has  the  honor  to  present  its  congratula- 
tions to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  on  the  occasion  of  the  commem- 


62  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

oration  festivities  celebrating  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth 
of  Carl  von  Linne".  The  whole  scientific  world  unites  in  grateful  veneration 
of  an  admirable  scholar,  whose  reputation  is  least  of  all  lost  in  the  land 
where  he  spent  three  of  the  most  fruitful  years  of  his  life.  Our  Senate  ex- 
presses its  feelings  of  cordial  sympathy  with  the  way  in  which  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences  intends  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  his  birth  by 
the  erection  of  an  architectural  monument  symbolizing  the  work  of  a  man 
whose  genius  embraced  the  two  realms  of  living  nature. 
For  the  Senate 

W.  NOLEN,  Rector  Magnificat. 

H.  P.  WIJSMAN,  Secretary. 


Professor  A.  A.  W.  Hubrecht,  University  of  Utrecht. 
(Honorary  Member  of  the  Academy.) 

The  great  Swede  whose  birth  —  now  two  hundred  years  ago  —  will  be 
commemorated  all  over  the  world  on  May  23,  passed  many  years  of  his  life 
in  Holland.  It  is  thus  natural  that  many  local  reminiscences  are  connected 
with  his  name  in  different  parts  of  this  country.  If  we  allow  our  thoughts 
to  go  back  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  we  can  imagine  Linnaeus 
roaming  about  on  his  botanical  excursions  over  those  same  fields  between 
's  Graveland  and  Hilversum  where  Hugo  de  Vrics  lately  encountered  an 
emigrant  from  the  United  States  (CEnotkera  lamarckiana)  that  was  to  be- 
come a  starting-point  for  new  and  important  speculations  about  the  species 
problem. 

The  foundations  for  an  answer  to  that  problem  were  laid  in  a  quite  mas- 
terly manner  by  Linnseus.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  we 
have,  however,  been  accustomed,  after  reading  Darwin's  works,  to  consider 
the  problem  as  non-existing;  species,  apparently,  being  in  slow  and  imper- 
ceptible continuity. 

Hugo  de  Vries  has  again  limited  species  between  the  occurrence  of  two 
mutations,  each  species  thus  being  a  real  entity  in  time  and  in  space.  This 
does  not  prevent  de  Vries  from  being  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  stanchest 
disciples  of  Darwin,  in  whose  steps  he  is  treading. 

Linnaeus's  species  differ  from  de  Vries's  in  that  they  are  the  primary 
network  between  the  meshes  of  which  de  Vries  has  spun  out  the  lacework 
of  the  mutation  theory. 

The  new  generations  thus  attempt  to  continue  Linnaeus's  and  Darwin's 
work,  and  unite  in  paying  homage  to  the  memory  of  the  founder  of  the 
"  Systema  Naturae." 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  63 


L' Academic  de  Medecine  de  Paris. 

L' Academic  de  Medecine  de  Paris  est  heureuse  de  repondre  a  I'invitation 
qu'elle  a  re£ue  de  1' Academic  des  Sciences  de  New- York,  a  1'occasion  du 
deuxieme  centenaire  de  la  naissance  de  Linne.  Elle  s'associe  cordialement 
aux  hommages  rendus  a  la  memoire  de  1'illustre  naturaliste  par  les  corps 
savants  de  la  grande  cit6  americaine. 

Tout  a  &£  dit  sur  1'ceuvre  de  Linne"  et  sur  la  revolution  qu'il  a  ope"r6e 
dans  les  sciences  naturelles.  Au  milieu  de  la  confusion  et  de  I'obscurit6 
qui  re"gnaient  avant  lui,  il  a  su,  le  premier,  degager  et  rendre  f6condes  les 
ide"es  generates  eparses  dans  les  Merits  de  ses  devanciers;  part  out  il  a  porte 
1'ordre,  la  clarte  et  des  reformes  heureuses. 

Observateur  incomparable,  a  1'amour  de  la  v^rite,  il  joignait  une  imagi- 
nation vive,  un  esprit  fertile  et  sagace,  1'expression  verbale  pittoresque  et 
le  sentiment  profond  des  choses  de  la  nature.  Ses  e"crits  occupent  depuis 
longtemps  la  premiere  place  dans  1'estime  des  savants,  et  Ton  se  demande, 
en  voyant  leur  prodigieuse  etendue,  ce  qui  doit  le  plus  etonner,  du  nombre 
de  ces  ouvrages  ou  de  1' importance  de  chacun  d'eux. 

Mais,  de  tous  les  titres  de  Linne"  a  la  reconnaissance  de  la  poste'rite',  le 
plus  beau  est  sans  contredit  celui  de  fondateur  de  cette  langue  scientifique 
nouvelle,  la  nomenclature  binaire,  qui  constitue  le  plus  grand  progres 
accompli  dans  les  sciences  naturelles  au  dix-huitieme  siecle.  A  la  prolixit£ 
confuse  des  descriptions  anterieures,  il  substituait  un  langage  net  et  precis, 
en  introduisant  1' usage  de  designer  les  £tres  par  un  nom  de  genre,  qui  les 
unit,  et  par  un  nom  d'espece,  qui  les  distingue.  La  nomenclature  linn£enne 
s'est  Etendue  a  toutes  les  branches  de  1'histoire  naturelle;  elle  en  a  prodi- 
gieusement  facility  I'&ude  en  fournissant  une  langue  commune  aux  savants 
de  tous  les  pays. 

Le  systeme  de  classification  e"tabli  par  Linn6  n'a  pas  moins  contribu6 
aux  progres  de  la  botanique  pendant  pres  d'un  siecle.  Dans  ce  cadre 
artificiel,  les  plantes  nouvelles  se  rangeaient  ais£ment  d'apres  un  petit  nombre 
de  caracteres  emprunt6s  a  la  fleur  et  judicieusement  choisis.  Des  lors 
l'6tude  des  v^g^taux  devint  accessible  a  la  multitude,  les  rccherchcs  scicnti- 
fiqucs  se  multiplierent  dans  toutes  les  parties  du  globe  avec  une  activite" 
considerable. 

Toutcfois,  1'esprit  philosophique  du  grand  naturaliste  ne  pouvait  manquer 
de  saisir  toute  1'importance  d'une  m^thode  plus  parfaite,  et,  s'il  ne  lui  a  pas 
e"t6  donn^  de  la  r£aliser  lui-m^me,  on  peut  dire  du  moins  qu'il  en  a  &e  le 
plus  ardent  promoteur  et  que  mil,  plus  que  lui,  n'a  contribue"  a  1'avenement 
de  la  grande  reforme  op^ree  plus  tard  par  Laurent  de  Jussieu. 


64  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Professeur  de  me"decine,  Linne  s'est  efforce  de  diriger  1'etude  de  la 
botanique  vers  les  applications  a  1'art  de  guerir.  II  a  cu  Ic  nitrite  de  formulcr 
nettement  le  principe  qui  devait  servir  de  guide  a  la  recherche  des  proprietes 
m&licamenteuses  des  plantes,  principe  fonde  sur  les  analogies  des  caracteres 
botaniques  et  des  caracteres  chimiques  des  ve'ge'taux.  Si  les  successeurs 
de  Linne  ont  parfois  exag6re  la  portee  de  la  theorie,  elle  n'en  a  pas  moins 
ouvert  une  voie  fe"conde  aux  recherches  ulterieures. 

L'ancienne  Societe"  Royale  de  M£decine  de  Paris,  dont  notre  Compagnie 
a  recueilli  I'hSritage,  a  compte"  jadis  1'illustre  professeur  d'Upsal  au  nombre 
de  ses  Associes  Strangers.  L'Academie  de  Medecine  de  Paris  est  done 
particuli£rement  qualifiee  pour  cele"brer  avec  vous  1'anniversaire  du  grand 
naturaliste  suedois.  Ellc  remercie  1' Academic  des  Sciences  de  New- York 
de  1'avoir  con  vice  a.  cette  commemoration,  qui  lui  pennet  d'exp rimer  ses 
sentiments  d'admiration  et  de  reconnaissance  pour  le  savant  dont  1'ceuvre 
ge"niale  a  projete"  sur  le  monde  une  si  vive  et  si  puissante  lumiere  que  I'^clat 
n'en  est  pas  encore  affaibli. 

ARM  AND  GAUTIER,  Le  President. 
JACCOUD,  Le  Secretaire  perpetuel. 


Universit€  de  Lyon. 

Le  Conseil  de  rUniversite"  de  Lyon  est  heureux  de  s'associer  moralement 
au  deuxieme  centenaire  de  la  naissance  de  1'illustre  naturaliste  Sue"dois 
Charles  Linne.  II  addresse  a  cette  occasion  1'hommage  de  son  admiration 
profonde  pour  le  createur  de  la  premiere  classification  scientifique  des  regnes 
animal  et  ve'ge'tal;  pour  1'inventeur  de  la  nomenclature  binominale  qui  a 
introduit  une  si  lumineuse  clarte  dans  le  chaos  jusque  la  obscur  de  la  nomen- 
clature biologique;  pour  I'immortel  auteur  du  "  Systema  Naturae"  qui  est  le 
premier  inventaire  universel  des  richesses  du  monde  anime". 

II  envoie  en  m£me  temps  a  1' Academic  des  Sciences  de  New- York 
1'expression  de  sa  gratitude  la  plus  cordiale  pour  Tamable  pensee  qu'eile 
a  eue  d'associer  1'Universite  de  Lyon  a  cette  fete  de  la  Science  Internationale. 

T.  JOUBIN,  Le  Recteur, 

President  du  Conseil  de  1'Universite. 


Societ6  des  Amis  des  Sciences  Naturelles  de  Rouen. 

La  Soci6t6  des  Amis  des  Sciences  naturelles  de  Rouen  (France)  a  1'hon- 
neur  d'exprimer  a  1'illustre  Academic  des  Sciences  de  New  York  sa  vive 


BICENTENARY  OF  L1NN&VS  65 

satisfaction  de  savoir  qu'un  pont  de  cette  admirable  ville  sera  d6die  a 
rimmortel  Linne,  dont  les  travaux  geniaux  constituent  la  base  de  la  taxi- 
nomie,  et  dont  le  nom  sera  perpetue"  a  jamais  par  les  innombrables  especes 
animales  et  veg&ales  qu'il  a  decrites. 

La  Societe"  des  Amis  des  Sciences  naturelles  de  Rouen  prie  1'illustre 
Academic  des  Sciences  de  New  York  d'agreer  1'hommage  de  sa  respectueuse 
admiration,  joint  a  1'assurance  de  ses  meilleurs  sentiments  de  confraternity. 
HENRI  GADEAU  DE  KERVILLE,  President. 


SocietS  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Toulouse. 

ELOGE  DE  LINNE,  APPRECIATIVE  DE  SON  (EUVRE. 

"Tibi  suaveo  dsedala  tellus 
Summittit  flores."  —  LUCRECE,  De  Natura  Rerum. 

C'est  a  vous,  divin  naturaliste,  que  1'univers  entier  presents  en  ce  jour  ses 
plus  belles  fleurs. 

Nous  saluerons  tout  d'abord  le  savant  qui  d'un  trait  de  son  puissant 
ge"nie,  saisit  la  structure  intime  des  vegetal.  Lui  aussi  a  eu  la  gloire  d'ouvrir 
un  des  sanctuaires  de  la  nature  et  de  s'initier  le  premier  a  quelques-uns  de 
ses  secrets. 

"Effringere  ut  arcta 
Naturae  primus  poetarum  claustra  cupiret."  —  LTJCUECE. 

Avant  Linn6  le  vegetal  d'etait  qu'un  vulgaire  objet  d' admiration,  1' element 
&  la  fois  rejouissant  et  decoratif  du  paysage.  Mais  le  g6nie  du  botaniste 
que  nous  fetons  eut  y  lire  tout  un  monde  nouveau,  et  de  la  comparaison  de  ce 
monde  avec  celui  des  animaux  sut  brillamment  degager  la  nation  de  hie- 
rarchic entre  les  deux  regnes,  entre  le  vegetal  et  1'animal.  Alors  se  dessina 
en  quelque  sorte  le  premier  anneau,  la  trame  primordiale  qui  devait  bientdt 
amener  1'esprit  de  l'homme  a  se  rcprescnter  une  chaine  complete  des  etres. 
Reconnaissons  done  en  Linne  un  anc&rc  de  Darwin. 

Mais  le  regne  ve'g&al  s'est  en  quelque  sorte  anime  sous  le  regard  de  ce 
scrutateur  amoureux  de  la  nature.  Qu'est  ce  en  effet  pour  Linn6  que  cette 
riante  parure  que  nous  nous  plaisons  a  appeler  corolle  de  la  fleur?  Tout 
simplement  le  lit  nuptial  des  organes  sexuels,  ceux  qui  reproduiront  1'espece. 
Et  que  seront,  examines  attentivement,  chacun  de  ces  derniers  organes, 
tant  male  que  femelle,  sinon  un  renduirent,  une  e"bauche  un  "caneoas"  de 
celui  de  1'animal,  comme  a  fait  si  bien  ressortir  le  physiologiste  Bichat? 
C'est  cette  decouverte  qui  constitue  le  trait  original  et  saillant  entre  tous, 
le  trait  de  g£nie,  repetons  le,  de  1'oeuvre  de  Linne.  Derriere  l'homme  de 
g6nie  nous  devons  admirer  le  philosophe. 


66  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Aussitdt  que  Linn£  cut  cue  bien  prfeente  dans  son  esprit  la  continuity  de 
la  chatne,  disons  mieux  de  I'e'chelle  des  etres  vivants  avec  leur  lois  generales 
communes  aux  deux  regnes  &  la  fois,  il  cut  aussi  toutes  desporees  d'une 
fa?on  tres  reguliere  les  bases  d'une  classification  des  v6getaux.  II  les 
rtjpartit  en  vingt  quatre  categories,  basees  toutes  sur  les  rapports  des  organes 
males  et  des  organes  femelles  dans  une  m£me  fleur  ou  dans  des  fleurs  se'parees, 
les  organes  sont  respectivcment  appeles  les  "maris  et  les  feinmes"  par 
Linn6.  Signalons  a  titre  de  curiosite": 

La  classe  xiv,  Didynamie.  —  Deux  puissances  quatre  mans  dont  deux 
plus  grands  et  deux  plus  petits. 

La  classe  xxi,  Moncecie.  —  Une  seule  maison:  les  maris  habitent  avec 
les  femmes  dans  des  lits  diflferents  (dans  la  meme  maison). 

La  classe  xxii,  Dioecie.  —  Les  maris  habitent  des  domiciles  et  des  lits 
divers. 

La  classe  xxiii,  Polygamie.  —  Plusieurs  noces :  les  maris  habitent  dans 
des  lits  distincts  avec  des  epouses  legitimes  et  des  concubines. 

La  classe  xxiv,  Cryptogamie.  —  Noces  cachets,  les  noces  sont  celebrees 
clandestinement . 

Cette  thebrie,  toute  ge"niale  qu'clle  etait,  n'6tait  pas  cependant  destinee 
a  subsister.  Elle  n'en  demeurere  pas  moins  comme  le  plus  beau  monument 
de  l'&ge  d'or  de  la  botanique.  Aussi  le  chemin  etait  fraye  dans  le  domaine 
veg&al:  la  notion  de  la  classification  allait  devenir  un  chapitre  important 
des  Etudes  philosophiques,  et,  grace  a  une  plus  complete  connaissance  de  la 
nature,  la  philosophic  elle  m£me  allait  prendre  un  nouvel  essor,  agrandir, 
transforme  son  domaine,  descendre  des  hauteurs  in&aphysiques  a  des  donn6es 
plus  positives.  Et  cela  jusques  au  jour  ou  le  progres  incessant  des  sciences 
naturelles  viendrait  introduire  une  nouvelle  idee  g^niale,  grace  a  laquelle 
les  deux  regnes  auraient  des  tendances  a  la  confondu  en  un  seul:  par  voie 
de  progres  nous  avons  nomme  cette  evolution  dont  Linn6  avait  jete  les 
premiers  fondaments.  Comme  il  etait  loin,  quand  il  ecrivait  la  Philosophia 
Botanica  de  pouvoir  entrevoir  seulement  la  grandeur  future  de  l'£difice 
dont  il  jetait  las  assises!  Quelle  est  enfin  1'epithete  qui  convient  a  Linn6  au 
milieu  de  ce  que  Ton  pourrait  appeler  le  "chosur  des  botanistes?" 

Un  savant  Suisse,  Rueper,  s'est  plu  a  caracteriser  chacun  des  grands 
historiens  du  regne  v^g^tal.  II  nous  represente  le  trfo  subtil  Adanson. 
Le  tres  ingenieux  Bernard  de  Jussieu,  les  6minents  Robert  Brown  et  De 
Candolle,  quant  a  Linne",  il  a  sa  place  surSminente,  c'est  le  divin  Linn6, 
divers  Linnaeus!  Le  divin  Linn6!  nous  lui  maintiendrons  ce  sublime  titre, 
puisque  ce  fut  un  des  privileges  surhumains  pour  ainsi  dire,  doue"  des 
lumieres  tout  a  fait  superieurs,  qui  sert  ouvrir  une  des  portes  d'un  sanc- 
tuairo  de  la  nature,  introduisent  aussi  a  sa  suite  dans  ce  domaine  reput6 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  67 

inaccessible  jusques  a  lui  toute  une  legion  d'e'minents  travailleurs  destines 
a  eu  explorer  les  recours  et  a  continuer  son  ceuvre ! 

Le  divin  LinnS!  n'avait-il  pas  en  effet  comme  profonde"ment  gravee  dans 
tout  son  etre  1'empreinte  de  cette  Divinite"  qu'il  ne  perdit  jamais  de  vue  ? 
ne  considerait  il  pas  1'oeuvre  qu'il  avait  accompli  dans  la  science  comme  le 
plus  bel  hommage  qu'il  fut  capable  de  lui  rendre  quelques  unes  de  ses  pages 
redisent  plusieurs  fois  le  nom  du  Cre'ateur  de  tous  les  etres.  Comme  nous 
regrettons  de  n'avoir  pu  retrouver  cette  priere,  si  sublime  dans  sa  brevit6, 
dans  laquelle  il  exprime  a  1'auteur  de  la  nature  sa  reconnaissance  eternelle 
pour  la  joie  qu'il  ressent  de  1'ceuvre  qu'il  lui  a  permis  d'accompli!  Bornons 
nous  a  mentionner  les  invocations  qui  terminent  un  de  ses  chapitres:  — 

"O  Jehovah,  quam  ampla  sunt  opera  tua! 
Quam  ea  omnia  in  sapientia  fecisti! 
Quam  plena  est  terra  possessione  tua!" 

Ce  sont  les  propres  accents  de  David,  au  psaume  103,  mais  sur  un  ton  plus 
renforce". 

Saluons  en  terminant  1'heureuse  patrie  de  Linn6,  la  Suede.  La  race  des 
g6nies,  si  brillamment  inaugure"e  par  le  botaniste  dont  nous  fetons  aujourd'hui 
1'anniversaire  deux  fois  seculaire  de  la  naissancc,  cette  race  disons  nous,  ne 
parait  pas  volontaire  s'epuiseren  Scandinavie.  Qu'il  nous  suffire  de  nommer 
un  contemporain,  le  celebre  chimiste  Arrhenius,  qui  semble  lui  aussi,  par  sa 
belle  theorie  des  ions,  avoir  revolutionn6  a  la  fois  le  monde  chimique  et  le 
monde  electrique,  preparant  ainsi  une  nouvelle  voie  aux  de"couvertes  indus- 
trielles  de  1'avenir.  L'ceuvre  de  Linne"  6tait  dans  le  regne  vegetal.  Arrhe"- 
nius  a  roula  la  tente  dans  un  troisieme  regne,  celui  dont  toute  vie  est  exclue'; 
les  secrets  qu'il  croit  en  ou  arraches  a  la  nature  sont  d'un  ordre  encore  plus 
intime  et  plus  mysterieux  que  ceux  que  lui  avaient  derobes  le  grand  botaniste. 
Comme  consequence  des  travaux  de  ces  deux  grands  hommes,  la  science 
peut  dire  aujourd'hui  avec  plus  de  raison  que  le  hero  de  Lucrecc :  II  y  a  plus 
bien  de  myste'rieuse  dans  la  nature:  nous  avons  triomphe  de  toutes  les 
barriferes,  et  nous  avons  conquis  la  notion  du  degre  de  puissance  qu'a  Ste" 
delimit^  a  chaque  e"tre  et  de  la  borne  qu'il  ne  peut  de"passer. 

"Unde  refert  nobis  victor  quid  ponit  oreri, 
Quid  nequeat,  finita  potestas  denique  eusque 
Quanam  ut  ratione  atque  alte  terminus  hoarens." 

LUCRECE,  De  Natura  Rerum. 

H.  DE  LASTEE,  Bibliothecaire. 


68  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Professor  Charles  Barrois,  University  of  Lille. 
(Honorary  Member  of  the  Academy.) 

C'est  un  tres  doux  sentiment  pour  les  savants  de  la  vieille  Europe  de 
vivre  un  jour  en  pleine  communion  d'idees  avec  les  savants  de  la  jeune 
Amerique,  pour  jeter  le  souvenir  d'un  maitre  commun,  d'un  bienfaiteur  de 
la  science.  L'histoire,  les  nations,  I'homme  ont  bien  evolue  depuis  le  jour 
de  Linn£;  le  respect  dd  a  son  nom  demeure,  et  s'en  va  grandissant.  Puisse 
son  exemple  faire  des  emules  nombreux  dans  votre  grand  pays,  qui  de  nos 
jours  rend  de  si  eminents  services  a  la  cause  de  la  science. 

Kaiserliche  Leopoldinisch-Carolinische  Deutsche  Akademie  der 
Naturforscher,  Halle  A.S. 

Der  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  entbietet  die  Kaiserliche  Leopol- 
dinisch-Carolinische Deutsche  Akademie  der  Naturforscher  zu  der  Feier  des 
200-Geburtstages  von  KARL  VON  LINNE  einen  Gruss,  da  sie  sich  eines 
weiss  mit  derselben  in  dem  Bestreben  den  grossen  schwedischen  Natur- 
forscher zu  ehren.  War  doch  unsere  Akademie  die  erste  wissenschaftliche 
Korperschaft,  welche  bereits  1736  den  jungen  Linnaeus  in  ihre  Mitte 
aufnahm  und  ihm  den  glanzvollen  Beinamen  eines  Dioskorides  Se- 
cundus  beilegte.  Wohl  auf  keine  anderen  Geistesheroen  kann  das  stolze 
Wort:  Deus  creavit,  Linnaeus  disposuit  auch  nur  annahernd  angewcndet 
werdcn.  So  unscheinbar  die  Linnaeus  borealis  ist,  umso  grosser  steht 
Linn6  als  Naturforscher  da.  Aber  nicht  nur  als  Botaniker  und  Zoologe 
erwarb  der  Jubilar  unsterblichen  Ruhm,  auch  in  der  Medizin  leistete  er  fiir 
die  damalige  Zeit  in  der  Materia  Medica  wie  der  Diatetik  Hervorragendes 
und  war  wohl  derjenige,  welcher  in  Schweden  fiir  die  pathologische  Ana- 
tomic als  bahnbrechend  anzusehen  ist,  da  er  die  Leichensektionen  daselbst 
einbiirgerte. 

Der  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  gestatten  wir  uns  anbei  den  Abdruck 
eines  Aufsatzes  zu  iiberreichen,  welcher  zu  Ehren  von  Karl  von  Linne  in 
der  Leopoldina  soeben  erschien. 

A.  WANGERIN,  Prasident. 

ROTH,  Bibliothekar. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  69 

Geh.  Bat  Professor  Dr.  H.  Rosenbusch,  University,  Heidelberg. 

{Honorary  Member  of  the  Academy.) 

.  .  .  Leider  ist  es  mir  bei  der  Fiille  von  Arbeit,  die  vor  mir  liegt,  nicht 
moglich,  Ihrem  \Viinsche  [for  a  document  to  be  read  at  the  Bicentenary]  zu 
entsprechen,  aber  Sie  diirfen  iiberzeugt  sein,  dass  meine  Gedanken  und 
Wiinsche  am  23  Mai  bei  Ihnen  in  New  York  sein  werden.  Moge  Ihr  Fest 
den  schonsten  Verlauf  nehmen  und  ein  freundlicher  Stern  iiber  der  schonen 
Briicke  walten,  die  den  Namen  eines  der  bedeutsamsten  Begriinder  der 
Natunvissenschaften  tragen  soil. 

Ihre  Nation  gibt  der  ganzen  Welt  ein  nachahmungswiirdiges  Beispiel, 
indem  sie  ein  stolzes  Werk  der  modernen  Technik  nach  einem  Forscher 
benennt,  dessen  ganzes  Leben  dem  hochsten  menschlichen  Gute,  der 
Wissenschaft,  geweiht  war. 


Regia  Societas  Scientiarum  Bohemica,  Prague. 

The  Royal  Bohemian  Society  of  Sciences  in  Prague,  fully  appreciating 
the  importance  of  celebrating  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  Carl  von 
Linne's  birth  by  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  is  glad  to  join  the 
sister  institutions  in  honoring  this  great  naturalist,  whose  efforts  in  the  first 
splendid  achievements  and  developments  of  biology  are  of  perpetual  value. 

"When,  in  the  beginning  of  modern  times,  in  the  multitude  of  known  and 
newly  discovered  organic  forms,  there  was  a  complete  chaos  to  be  feared 
instead  of  an  exact  distinction  of  them,  it  was  the  genius  of  Linn6  which 
arranged  the  masses  of  raw  material  into  the  scientific  edifice  of  a  strictly 
logical  system.  Linne's  epochal  "Systema  Naturae"  laid  the  foundation  for 
all  future  systematics  of  animals  and  plants. 

Introducing  the  descriptive  method  and  terminology,  establishing  a  clear 
definition  of  each  species  in  its  genus,  order  and  class,  Linne  gained  a  firm 
basis  for  an  exact  deduction  of  organic  forms.  It  was  Linne"  who  at  the 
same  time  united  the  analytical  and  synthetical  tendencies  of  his  predecessors 
into  an  efficient  discipline. 

Linne's  method  has  facilitated  the  knowledge  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
whole  territories,  and  we  have  to  thank  this  method  that  also  in  Bohemia 
very  early  efforts  for  a  systematical  analysis  of  the  organic  world  have  been 
brought  to  full  efficiency. 

The  Royal  Bohemian  Society  of  Sciences,  the  oldest  center  of  scientific 


70  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

efforts  in  Austria,  has  from  the  very  beginning  of  her  existence  founded  her 
work  on  Linnets  teaching,  and  has  in  progress  of  time,  with  the  increasing 
numbers  of  successful  scientists  amongst  her  members,  continually  contrib- 
uted to  the  systematical  knowledge  of  organic  life  in  Bohemia.  We  need 
only  point  out  the  old  classical  systematicians  of  zoology  and  botany, — 
M.  E.  Bloch,  Von  Stein,  K  P.  Presl,  Lad.  Celakovsky,  and  others  who 
enriched  the  publications  of  the  Royal  Bohemian  Society  of  Sciences  in  the 
spirit  of  Linne\ 

And  the  researches  of  modern  times,  so  important  for  the  study  of  organic 
life  in  the  enormous  mass  of  its  zoological  and  botanical  forms,  though  they 
are  far  advanced  in  their  ideas  and  methods,  still  must  always  gratefully 
remember  the  invaluable  deserts  of  the  great  Linn6  for  the  foundation  and 
development  of  biology. 

For  the  Royal  Bohemian  Society  of  Sciences : 

K.  VRBA,  President. 

DR.  V.  E.  MOUREK,  General  Secretary. 

F.  VEJDOVSKY,  Secretary  of  the  Class  for 

Mathematical  and  Natural  Sciences. 


La  Societ6  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Geneve,  Suisse. 

La  Soci&e  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire  naturelle  de  Geneve  s'associe  de 
grand  cceur  a  la  manifestation  que  font  les  Soci&es  Amencaines  pour 
celSbrer  le  bi-centenaire  de  Linn6. 

Geneve,  plus  que  toute  autre,  s'y  associe  avec  joie:  ses  naturalistes  tels 
que  les  Vaucher,  les  de  Candolle,  les  de  Saussure  ont  toujours  hautement 
appre'cie'  1'oeuvre  du  grand  Sue"dois,  et  leurs  descendants  ne  peuvent  que 
suivre  leurs  traces  et  applaudir  a  tout  ce  qui  pourra  perp&uer  la  m&noire 
de  ce  savant. 

Notre  Socie"t6  adresse  done  des  vceux  chaleureux  pour  le  succes  de  la 
manifestation  ame>icaine,  qui  sera  digne  de  celui  qui  a  laisse"  une  trace  si 
profonde  dans  les  sciences  naturelles. 

A.  BRUN,  President. 


Specula  Vaticana,  Rome. 

The  Specula  Vaticana  heartily  joins  in  your  celebration  of  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Carl  von  LinnS. 

The  astronomers  of  the  Specula  recognize  a  close  relation  between  their 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  71 

own  realm  and  that  of  the  distinguished  Swedish  naturalist,  in  that  stars 
and  flowers  are  called  the  "  eyes  of  the  heavens  "  and  the  "eyes  of  the  field," 
which,  with  the  eyes  of  the  child,  are  numbered  among  the  most  precious 
gifts  of  the  Creator. 

We  rejoice  with  you  that  Linne"  has  unfolded  to  us  the  beauties  and 
riches  of  the  eyes  of  the  field,  which,  no  less  than  those  of  the  heavens,  show 
forth  the  glory  of  God. 

JOHN  G.  HAGEN,  S.J.,  Director. 


Reale  Osservatorio  di  Palermo,  Italia. 

Poiche  in  occasione  del  secondo  centanario  della  nascita  di  Carlo  Linneo, 
che  cotesta  Accademia  celebrera  il  23  corrente,  la  S.  V.  Illma  mi  ha  gentil- 
mente  invitato  a  contribute  un  documento  ufficiale  apprerzante  1'opera  del 
Naturalista  Svedese,  io,  non  avendo  una  competenza  sufficiente  per  dire 
cosa  degna  di  un  cosi  eminente  Scienrato  in  una  ricorrenza  cosi  solenne,  mi 
sono  rivolto  per  aiuto  al  mio  illustre  collega  Prof.  A.  Borzi,  direttore  del  R. 
Giardino  Botanico  e  Coloniale  di  Palermo,  il  quale  mi  ha  risposto  con  la 
lettera  che  qui  Le  hascrivo. 

"E'tanto  difficile  dire  qualche  cosa  di  nuovo  su  Carlo  Linneo  che  io  mi 
trovo  imbarazzato  a  rispondere  alia  sua  domanda.  Da  quasi  due  secoli 
tutte  la  vita  di  questo  sommo  Naturalista  e  stata  indagata  in  ogni  piu  minuta 
particolarita,  tutte  le  sue  opere  studiate  con  tanta  profondita  di  dottrina, 
che  io  non  saprei  che  cosa  dire.  Certamente  di  Linneo  si  pud  affermare 
che  nessun  botanico  o  naturalista  raggiunse  a  cosi  alta  fama  come  Lui: 
non  v'e  persona  mediocremente  colta  che  non  rammenti  il  nome  di  Carlo 
Linneo,  mentre  di  tanti  e  tanti  altri  insigni  naturalist!  il  ricordo  non  ha 
vareato  cosi  vasti  confini.  II  piu  grande  merito  di  Linneo,  secondo  me, 
non  consiste  rolamente  nello  avere  riformato  e  piantato  su  basi  incrollabili 
la  sistematica  vegetale,  ma  sopra  tutto  quello  di  aver  tracciato  le  linee 
fondamentali  della  Botanica  Scientifica  moderna  divinandone  meraviglio- 
samente  i  concetti.  Basta  leggere  il  piccolo  libro  intitolato  "  Philosophia 
botanica  "  per  convincersene. 

"Forse  potra  far  piarere  all'  Accademia  de  New  York  il  comunicarle  un 
documento  inedito  curiosissimo  che  interessa  la  storia  del  nostro  Istituto 
Botanico  a  proposito  di  Carlo  Linneo.  Quando  nel  1792  si  fondo  1'Orto 
Botanico  di  Palermo  fu  eretta  una  statua  in  onore  del  sommo  botanico 
svedese.  Lo  scultore  fu  Vitale  Zuccio,  che  la  modello  in  istucco  il  doppio 
del  naturale.  Questa  statua  fu  copiata  da  un  ritratto  di  Linneo,  dal  Linneo 
stesso  giudicato  il  piu  somigliante  e  dovuto  al  pittore  Roslins.  II  Zuccio, 


72  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

scultore  palermitano,  non  ebbe  la  occasione  di  vedere  questa  pittura,  ma 
semplicemente  una  incisione  eseguita  dall'  artista  Bervic  nel  1779.  Im- 
portante  pero  e  il  fatto  che  la  prima  statua  eretta  in  onore  di  Linneo  fu  la 
nostra,  mentre  il  primo  ricordo  marmoreo  (un  merzo  busto)  dell'  insigne 
botanico,  che  si  conosca,  e  quello  che  eresse  il  giardino  delle  piante  di  Parigi 
il  1790.  La  patria  di  Linneo  ebbe  al  1820  la  prima  statua  dell'  immortale 
suo  figlio." 

lo  mi  un  pregio  di  mandare  a  Lei  una  fotografua  della  statua  di  Linneo 
di  cui  ha  partato  il  Prof.  Borzi. 

F.  ANGELITTI,  Direttore. 


Real  Academia  de  Ciencias  Exactas,  Fisicas  y  Naturales  de  Madrid. 

La  Real  Academia  de  Ciencias  exactas,  flsicas  y  naturales  de  Madrid 
estima  como  honrosa  distincion  el  convite,  que  esa  ilustre  Academia  le 
dirige,  para  contribuir  a  la  celebracion  del  segundo  centenario  del  nacimiento 
de  Carlos  Linneo. 

Gustosfsima  se  asocia  a  las  solemnidades  con  que  se  festeje  la  veneranda 
memoria  del  naturalista,  que,  antes  y  mejor  que  otro  alguno,  supo  imprimir 
6rden,  metodo  y  sistema  al  estudio  y  conocimiento  de  los  seres  naturales, 
dotando  a  la  ciencia  de  una  nomenclatura  y  de  una  nocion  de  las  especies, 
base  de  todas  las  descripciones  y  agrupaciones  de  los  seres  vivos,  posterior- 
mente  aceptadas. 

Espana  se  complace  tanto  mas  vivamente  en  la  exaltacion  de  la  obra  del 
sapientisimo  maestro  sueco,  cuanto  que  por  intermedio  de  un  discipulo 
suyo  estuvo  con  61  en  constante  comunicacion  mientras  vivio. 

Fenga  pues,  la  Academia  de  Ciencias  de  Nueva  York  por  presente  en 
espfritu  £  la  Real  Academia  de  Ciencias  exactas,  fisicas  y  naturales  de 
Madrid,  en  todos  los  actos,  con  que  el  23  de  Mayo  glorifique  a  Linneo. 
JOSE  ECHEGARAY,  El  Presidente. 
FRANCISCO  DE  P.  ARRILLAGA,  El  Secretario. 


Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society,  Falmouth,  England. 

To  the  members  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  and  assembled 
guests,  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  bi-centenary  of  the  birth 
of  Carl  Von  Linne,  the  members  of  the  Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society 
(England)  send  greetings. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  73 

As  the  parent  of  all  societies  calling  themselves  by  the  name  Polytechnic, 
and  having  from  its  birth,  in  1832,  consistently  adhered  to  the  purpose  of 
its  founders,  viz.,  —  the  encouragement  of  science,  as  well  as  the  fine  and 
industrial  arts, —  the  Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society  offers  its  congratu- 
lations to  its  fellow-workers  in  the  domain  of  science  in  the  great  city  of  New 
York,  on  the  practical  and  comprehensive  character  of  the  commemorative 
exercises  which  their  enterprise  and  wisdom  have  projected  for  the  interesting 
occasion  falling  on  May  23  next.  It  trusts  nothing  will  occur  to  prevent 
each  function  from  realization  in  a  manner  befitting  the  memory  of  so  great 
a  benefactor  to  natural  science,  and  fully  sustaining  the  prestige  of  one  of  the 
foremost  of  the  learned  societies  in  America. 

"While  leaving  it  to  societies  of  wider  renown  to  express  the  world's 
indebtedness  and  gratitude  to  Carl  von  Linne,  who  has  been  truly  styled 
"the  father  of  modern  systematic  natural  history,"  and  who  was  the  founder 
of  the  now  universally  adopted  binominal  system  of  scientific  nomenclature, 
the  Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society  cannot,  on  this  historic  occasion, 
refrain  from  recording  its  own  appreciation  of  the  work  accomplished  by 
one  who,  though  a  distinguished  son  of  Sweden,  belongs,  by  virtue  of  his 
brilliant  achievements,  to  every  land  and  people. 

The  careful  and  far-reaching  character  of  the  investigations  of  Carl 
von  Linne  probably  stand  without  parallel  in  the  annals  of  science.  Sur- 
rounded in  early  life  by  conditions  which  would  have  deterred  most  men, 
genius  and  a  whole-hearted  enthusiasm  for  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  in  a 
direction  where  he  was  destined  subsequently  to  hold  a  position  which, 
after  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  years,  is  still  unique,  his  clear  insight,  added 
to  his  almost  incomparable  faculty  for  dealing  with  vast  accumulations  of 
material,  enabled  him,  after  years  of  constant  devotion  to  his  self-imposed 
task,  to  evolve  cosmos  out  of  chaos.  The  foundation  which  he  laid  for  the 
determination  of  genera  and  species  was  the  soundest  that  science  had  been 
invited  to  adopt,  and  on  it  succeeding  generations  have  reared  a  noble 
structure. 

What  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  has  been  able  to  accomplish, 
what  the  Royal  Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society  has  done  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  many  branches  of  natural  science,  what  is  being  done  by  kin- 
dred societies  all  the  world  over,  has  been  made  possible  through  the  new 
era  which  was  ushered  in  by  the  publication  of  the  numerous  erudite  works 
from  the  pen  of  him  to  whom  all  nations  are  now  paying  homage. 

To-day  we  think  of  the  student  whose  indomitable  courage  enabled  him 
to  triumph  over  difficulties  of  the  most  trying  kind,  and  to  fill  his  appointed 
niche  in  human  affairs;  of  the  man  whose  life  was  so  devout  that  his  first 
sight  of  an  English  furze-bush,  arrayed  in  all  its  golden  splendor,  was  to 


74  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

him  fitting  occasion  for  expressing  gratitude  to  God;  of  the  distinguished 
scientist  on  whom  the  world's  greatest  prizes  had  been  freely  showered, 
selecting  one  of  the  most  unobtrusive  of  plants  to  perpetuate  his  own  name. 
After  two  hundred  years,  Carl  von  Linne"  enters  into  full  possession  of  his 
own  well-earned  estate,  an  estate  fixed  deep  and  indelibly  in  the  heart  and 
affections  of  every  student  of  nature. 

JOHN  D.  ENYS,  President. 

E.  W.  NEWTON,  Secretary. 


The  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  Manchester,  England. 

The  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  willingly  joins  with 
the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  in  its  commemoration  of  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  illustrious  Linnfeus. 

His  profound  insight  into  the  affinities  and  disresemblances  of  organized 
beings;  his  vivid  differentiation  of  natural  groups;  his  pithy,  crisp  charac- 
terization of  orders,  genera  and  species;  and  his  binomial  principle  of  nomen- 
clature, —  all  exercised  a  profoundly  stimulating  influence  upon  the  progress 
of  biological  science. 

Nor  must  the  personal  merits  of  the  man  pass  unrecognized.    His  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  work  of  his  predecessors,  his  self-sacrificing  labors,  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  he  inspired  his  students,  and  his  remarkable  humility 
—  so  fittingly  commemorated  in  the  Linncea  borealis  —  are  qualities  which 
provoke  the  admiration  of  naturalists,  alike  in  the  hemisphere  in  which  he 
worked  and  in  the  hemisphere  in  which  this  commemoration  is  being  held. 
HAROLD  B.  DIXON,  President. 
FRANCIS  JONES,  1  Honorary 

FREDERICK  WILLIAM  GAMBLE,  j  Secretaries. 


Professor  James  Geikie,  University  of  Edinburgh. 

(Honorary  Member  of  the  Academy.) 

I  deem  it  a  high  honor  to  be  invited  to  place  a  little  stone  on  the  ever- 
increasing,  cairn  raised  by  lovers  of  science  all  the  world  over  in  memory 
of  Carl  von  Linn£.  The  distinguished  Swedish  naturalist  has  made  a  name 
for  himself  that  can  never  die.  Admirable  as  an  exact  observer  and  care- 
ful collator  of  evidence,  and  no  less  admirable  as  a  generalizer,  he  is  an 
ensample  to  every  sincere  student  of  nature.  Before  this  bright  genius 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  75 

appeared,  the  study  of  natural  science  was  in  a  more  or  less  chaotic  state. 
Doubtless  much  knowledge  of  living  things  had  been  acquired  before  his 
time,  but  hitherto  that  knowledge  had  not  been  systematized.  It  was 
reserved  for  Linn6  not  only  greatly  to  increase  the  stores  of  learning,  but  to 
indicate  how  it  was  possible  to  group  and  classify  the  multitudinous  forms 
of  life  so  as  to  show  that  all  formed  part  of  one  grand  harmonious  whole. 
One  can  hardly  exaggerate  his  influence  upon  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences.  His  was  one  of  those  creative,  fertile  minds  from  which  all  who 
made  his  acquaintance,  either  personally  or  through  his  writings,  were  bound 
to  catch  inspiration.  He  must  have  had  a  most  engaging  personality,  and 
was  undoubtedly  filled  with  enthusiasm.  How  otherwise  could  he  have 
drawn  annually  to  Upsala  some  fifteen  hundred  pupils  from  all  parts  of 
Europe?  His  "Systema  Naturae,"  "Genera  Plantarum,"  "Critica  Bo- 
tanica,"  and  other  famous  works,  are  unquestionably  notable  landmarks  in 
the  history  of  natural  science.  Science  and  their  influence  we  can  to  some 
extent  estimate;  but  who  can  estimate  the  profound  influence  he  must  have 
exerted  on  the  many  thousand  pupils  who  listened  to  his  prelections,  and 
who  carried  his  enthusiasm  with  them  into  every  civilized  country!  Hon- 
ored and  admired  in  his  own  day,  Carl  von  Linne"  will  ever  continue  to  be 
recognized  as  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  all  time. 


The  Royal  Society  of  Canada. 

The  President  and  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  beg  to  offer 
their  cordial  thanks  to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  for  its  kind 
invitation  to  participate  in  the  exercises  commemorative  of  the  two  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Carl  von  Linn6,  and  express  their  regret  that  they 
are  unable  to  send  a  delegate  to  personally  represent  their  Society  on  this 
most  interesting  occasion. 

The  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  which  has  just  closed  its  Twenty-fifth 
Annual  Meeting,  shares  with  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  and  with 
kindred  associations  all  over  the  world,  in  its  high  appreciation  of  the  eminent 
services  rendered  to  the  natural  sciences  by  the  transcendent  ability,  judg- 
ment and  foresight  so  remarkably  displayed  by  the  distinguished  Swedish 
naturalist  of  the  eighteenth  century.  To  him  is  due  in  no  small  measure 
the  modern  system  of  scientific  nomenclature,  and  by  him  were  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  classification  of  animals  and  plants  upon  which  biologists 
in  all  departments  have  since  built  their  structures  of  scientific  knowledge. 
It  is  therefore  in  the  highest  degree  fitting  that  the  name  of  so  great  a  man 
as  Linne",  the  precursor  of  a  long  line  of  eminent  philosophers,  should  be 


76  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

honored  in  America  in  the  manner  that  is  now  proposed,  and  that  the  beauti- 
ful bridge  connecting  the  Botanical  Gardens  and  the  Zoological  Park  in 
New  York  should  by  its  name  perpetually  remind  the  passer-by  of  the  great- 
ness that  may  be  achieved  by  intellectual  and  scientific  attainments.  In 
an  age  that  may  be  considered  sordid  in  many  of  its  occupations  and  aspira- 
tions, such  a  reminder  is  of  great  value,  and  may  lead  many  to  think  of  the 
man,  and  endeavor,  in  however  humble  a  manner,  to  tread  in  his  footsteps. 
All  honor  to  the  name  of  Carl  von  Linne!  May  the  torch  which  he 
kindled  with  the  flame  of  natural  science,  which  has  illuminated  the  path 
of  numberless  followers  during  two  hundred  years,  never  be  extinguished! 
May  we  all  strive  by  our  diligent  work,  by  our  enthusiasm,  by  our  lofty 
aims  and  high  hopes,  to  keep  it  alive  and  pass  it  on,  ever  growing  more  and 
more  brilliant,  to  those  who  shall  come  after  us ! 

WM.  SAUNDERS,  President. 


The  Entomological  Society  of  Ontario. 

The  President  and  Officers  of  the  Entomological  Society  of  Ontario  are 
pleased  to  have  an  opportunity  of  adding  a  few  words,  to  the  many  which 
will  be  read  at  the  commemorative  exercises  which  are  to  be  held  on  the  23d 
instant,  in  appreciation  of  the  magnificent  work  which  was  done  for  the 
whole  world  of  science  by  Carl  von  Linn6,  the  founder  of  systematic  natural 
history.  It  is,  however,  with  deep  regret  that  we  find  it  impossible  to  send 
a  delegate  to  take  part  personally  in  this  celebration. 

By  entomologists  and  botanists  especially,  the  name  of  Linne  must 
always  be  held  in  reverence  and  respect,  for  to  him  is  in  large  measure  due 
the  placing  of  these  branches  of  natural  histoiy  on  a  stable  and  permanent 
foundation.  He  was  indeed  the  father  of  systematic  biology;  and  the  mem- 
bers of  our  Society  feel  that  too  much  honor  can  never  be  bestowed  upon  the 
memory  of  so  great  a  man.  It  is  therefore  a  cause  of  much  gratification 
that  a  lasting  monument  in  the  shape  of  a  beautiful  bridge  crossing  the  Bronx 
River  has  been  erected,  which  will  be  a  constant  reminder  to  all  visiting 
the  Botanical  Garden  and  Zoological  Park  of  the  work  which  was  done  by 
this  master  mind. 

JAMES  FLETCHER,  President. 
CHARLES  J.  S.  BETHUNE,  Secretary. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  77 


Sociedad  Cientifica  "Antonio  Alzate,"  Mexico,  D.F. 

By  request  of  the  Sociedad  Cientifica  "Antonio  Alzate"  of  the  City  of 
Mexico,  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  that  distinguished  Society  as  its 
delegate  to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  on  the  occasion  of  the 
exercises  commemorative  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth 
of  Linnaeus. 

The  Society  Antonio  Alzate,  which  represents  the  scientific  thought  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico,  is  composed  of  men  of  high  attainments,  many  of 
whom,  through  the  important  official  publications  of  the  Society  and  through 
other  media,  have  made  rich  contributions  to  the  sciences  of  botany,  zoology, 
chemistry,  astronomy  and  other  branches  of  learning.  These  enlightened 
men  are  in  full  sympathy  with  the  most  advanced  men  of  science  in  the 
United  States. 

The  members  of  this  important  Society  are  fully  imbued  with  the  Lin- 
nsean  spirit,  and  are  animated  by  the  same  desire  to  emulate  the  great 
example  of  the  master  that  inspires  their  New  York  brethren. 

By  the  instructions  of  the  Society  Antonio  Alzate  I  bring  the  friendly 
greetings  and  hearty  sympathy  of  its  members  to  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Sciences  as  it  celebrates  this  interesting  and  notable  anniversary. 

GEORGE  T.  STEVENS,  Delegate. 


The  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  Harvard  University. 

The  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  in  Harvard  University  accepts 
with  pleasure  the  invitation  of  the  Academy  to  participate  in  the  exercises 
commemorative  of  Linnaeus,  and  it  has  requested  Mr.  William  Brewster,  a 
member  of  its  staff,  to  represent  it  upon  that  occasion. 

Linnseus  embraced  the  whole  department  of  natural  history  in  its  widest 
sense.  His  conspicuous  contributions  to  botany  have  much  obscured  the 
fact  that  every  field  of  nature  was  investigated  by  him  with  productive  results. 
Throughout  the  entire  range  of  inorganic  and  organic  nature  he  passed  with 
steady  step,  introducing  methods  of  study  and  systems  of  terminology  which 
brought  order  out  of  confusion. 

Recognizing  the  indebtedness  which  all  natural  science  owes  to  Linnaeus, 
our  Museum  joins  in  the  tributes  which  at  this  time  the  whole  world  is  pay- 
ing to  his  name. 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT,  President. 
ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ,  Secretary. 


78  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


The  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History. 

The  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  through  its  official  representa- 
tive, Mr.  JOEL  ASAPH  ALLEN,  sends  its  greetings  and  congratulations  t» 
the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  desires  to  share  in  the  celebration 
of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  CARL  VON  LINNE. 

Upon  the  basis  of  the  scientific  achievements  of  the  great  Swedish 
naturalist,  all  subsequent  work  in  botany  and  zoology  has  been  built  up. 
To  his  labors  and  to  the  system  introduced  by  him,  we  owe  the  possibility 
of  recording,  and  thereby  mastering,  the  immense  and  bewildering  flora  and 
fauna  of  the  world.  Our  debt  to  him  can  hardly  be  overestimated :  there- 
fore the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  is  glad  to  add  its  tribute  of  admi- 
ration and  gratitude,  and  begs  to  thank  the  Academy  for  the  opportunity 
of  participating  in  the  present  noteworthy  celebration. 

CHARLES  SEDGWICK  MINOT,  President. 


The  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

The  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  gratefully  accepts  the 
invitation  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  to  participate  in  the 
commemorative  exercises  to  be  held  on  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  Linnaeus. 

The  Academy  appreciates  the  lasting  influence  which  his  work  in  botany 
and  zoology  has  exercised  on  the  development  of  these  sciences  throughout 
the  whole  world.  Through  his  profound  studies  he  was  enabled  to  bring 
order  out  of  the  chaotic  writings  of  his  predecessors,  to  establish  the  science 
of  taxonomy  on  a  firm  and  satisfactory  basis,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  a 
natural  and  logical  classification  of  plants  and  animals. 

The  Academy  has  the  honor  to  appoint  Professor  ALEXANDER  W.  EVANS 
as  its  authorized  representative. 

A.  E.  VERRILL,  President. 
GEORGE  F.  EATON,  Secretary. 


The  American  Journal  of  Science. 

The  editorial  staff  of  the  "American  Journal  of  Science"  —  whose  birth 
in  1818  was  contemporaneous  with  the  beginnings  of  natural  science  in  this 
country,  and  which  for  nearly  a  century  has  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINN&US  79 

science,  and  ever  striven  to  support  and  stimulate  it  —  desires  to  express  to 
you  its  profound  appreciation  of  the  debt  we  all  owe  to  the  great  Swedish 
naturalist  whose  birth  in  1707  you  commemorate. 

If  science  is  classified  knowledge,  the  highest  credit  belongs  to  him  who 
brings  scientific  facts  and  observations  into  a  rational  system:  in  this  work 
Linneeus  stands  pre-eminent.  To  his  keen  mind  it  was  given  not  only  to 
bring  order  among  the  genera  and  species  of  plants  and  animals,  not  only 
to  build  up  a  lasting  system  of  nomenclature,  but  also  to  develop  in  these 
directions,  as  in  the  broader  relations,  a  profound  basis  of  classification 
which  has  had  a  lasting  influence  upon  science  in  all  its  branches. 

EDWARD  S.  DANA,  Editor-in-chief. 


The  Torrey  Botanical  Club,  New  York  City. 

A  clearly-stated  conspectus  of  contents  and  an  index  so  arranged  that  one 
may  consult  the  contents  with  a  minimum  of  labor  are  two  crowning  features 
of  any  volume.  They  reveal  a  systematic  as  well  as  a  constructive  intelli- 
gence on  the  part  of  the  author,  and  mark  the  boundaries  between  chaos 
and  clearness.  It  is  with  this  feeling  that  botanists  look  back  to  Linnaeus, 
not  so  much  for  the  originality  of  his  research  as  for  his  gift  of  order,  by 
means  of  which  the  unclassified  botanical  observations  of  two  centuries  were 
reduced  to  a  system.  It  matters  not  that  this  system  perished  almost  in  a 
generation;  it  served  a  purpose  in  its  own  day,  and  made  progress  possible 
to  those  who  had  previously  been  wandering  over  a  boundless  sea  with 
neither  stars  nor  sun  to  guide  them.  Linnaeus  is  remembered,  not  because 
of  his  research,  but  because  of  his  arrangement  of  existing  knowledge  in  a 
usable  form. 

In  spite  of  his  blunders  (for  he  was  not  free  from  them),  in  spite  of  his 
arbitrary  substitutions  of  his  own  work  for  the  clearer  work  of  others,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  emphasized  system  at  the  expense  of  the  broader  principles 
of  comparison,  and  withal  contributed  to  the  fixing,  for  five  generations, 
the  dogma  of  constancy  of  specific  characters, —  botanists  will  always  regard 
Linnseus  as  one  of  the  truly  great.  He  was  the  "father  of  botany,"  not 
even  its  elder  brother.  He  was  not  the  author  of  binomial  nomenclature, 
for  that  originated  before  Linnaeus  was  born;  he  was  the  first  wTho  was  able 
to  look  at  the  existing  knowledge  of  plant  life  with  some  degree  of  perspective, 
and  he  reduced  that  knowledge  to  a  system,  that  botany  might  later  become 
a  science. 

LUCIEN  M.  UNDERWOOD,  Committee. 


80  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

New  York  Entomological  Society. 

IN  MEMORY   OF  CAROLUS  LINNAEUS,    1707-1778. 

The  name  of  Linnaeus,  the  illustrious  naturalist  who  first  pointed  out 
the  real  utility  of  some  system  by  which  the  great  kingdoms  of  nature  could 
be  systematically  arranged,  is  known  to  the  whole  civilized  world. 

Linnaeus  was  not  only  a  naturalist  of  most  accurate  observation,  but  of  a 
philosophical  mind,  and  upon  this  depended  in  a  great  degree  the  unpar- 
alleled influence  which  he  exercised  upon  the  progress  of  every  branch  of 
natural  history. 

If  we  consider  the  difficulties  which  beset  his  early  scientific  career,  the 
limited  number  of  collections  of  animals  and  plants  at  his  command,  we  must 
admit  that  the  merit  which  his  contemporaries  awarded  him  was  very 
justly  earned. 

Among  the  important  services  which  he  rendered  to  science  was  the 
creation  of  a  natural  system  of  classification  and  the  introduction  of  a  more 
precise  nomenclature,  which  in  the  main  is  followed  to-day. 

While  quite  young  he  received  his  first  inspiration  for  natural  history 
in  his  father's  garden,  which  was  planted  with  many  rare  shrubs  and  flowers. 
Those  sparks  which  were  kindled  in  the  early  part  of  his  life  at  last  burst 
into  such  a  flame  of  intensity,  that  the  marks  are  indelibly  left  upon  the 
sciences. 

Entomology  owes  much  to  the  work  of  this  great  man. 

In  his  "Systema  Naturae"  (tenth  edition),  he  divided  the  insects  into 
seven  orders,  as  follows :  Coleoptera,  Hemiptera,  Lepidoptera,  Neuroptera, 
Hymenoptera,  Diptera  and  Aptera. 

The  modern  orders  Forficulidae  and  Orthoptera  were  placed  with  the 
Coleoptera;  the  order  Thysanoptera,  with  the  Hemiptera.  The  order 
Neuroptera  included  the  modern  orders  Ephemerida,  Plecoptera,  Isoptera, 
Corrodentia,  Platyptera,  Neuroptera,  Mecoptera,  Trichoptera  and  Odonata. 
The  order  Aptera  contained  all  the  insects  without  wings  or  elytra,  except 
the  females  of  Mutillidae,  including  also  those  arthropods  which  form  to-day 
the  classes  of  Arachnida  and  Myriapoda.  Each  order  contained  a  small 
number  of  genera  which  were  not  arranged  into  families. 

Of  the  many  insects  described  by  him,  about  three  hundred  species 
occur  in  the  United  States,  most  of  which  were  originally  described  from 
Europe,  and  some  from  South  America.  Of  the  different  orders  repre- 
sented, Linnaeus  described  seven  species  of  Neuroptera,  four  species  of 
Odonata,  twelve  species  of  Orthoptera,  twenty-seven  species  of  Hemiptera, 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  81 

a  hundred   species   of   Coleoptera,  fifty  species   of   Diptera,    twenty-eight 
species  of  Hymenoptera  and  sixty-six  species  of  Lepidoptera. 

The  New  York  Entomological  Society  appreciates  this  opportunity  of 
paying  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  man  through  whose  wonderful  far-sight 
and  scientific  attainment  we  are  better  able  to  understand  the  great  system 
of  nature. 

C.  W.  LENG,  President. 

H.  G.  BARBER,  Secretary. 


INSECTS  DESCRIBED    BY  LINN^US  WHICH   ARE   KNOWN  TO  OCCUR 

IN  NORTH  AMERICA.1 

Hymenoptera. 

Rhodites  rosse  Sphex  pennsylvanica 

Rhyssa  persuasoria  Oxybelus  uniglumis 

Chalcis  minuta  Monobia  quadridens 

Pteromalus  puparum  Polistes  canadeasis 

Formica  fusca  carolinus 

"        rufa  "        annularis 

Lasius  niger  Vespa  crabro 

Odontomachus  haematodes  "      maculata 

Tetramorium  csespitum  "      rufa 

Monomorium  pharaonis  "      vulgaxis 

Sphaerophthalma  occidentalis  Coelinxyz  quadridentata 

Pompilus  tropicus  Bombus  carolinus 

Chalybion  cseruleum  "         hortorum 

Sphex  ichneumonea  Apis  mellifera 

Lepidoptera. 

Danais  plexippus  Cosmosoma  auge 

Heliconius  charitonius  Utetheisa  ornatrix 

Agraulis  vanillae  Phragmatobia  fuliginoea 

Vanessa  antiopa  Euplexia  lucipara 

Pyrameis  atalanta  Dyptergia  scabriuscula 

Victorina  steneles  Pyripbila  pyramidoides 

Anartia  jatrophse  "          tragopoginis 

Ageronia  feronia  Perodroma  oculta 

Diadema  misippus  Scoliopterix  libatrix 

Calephelis  csenius  Plusia  culta 

Leptalis  melite  Ophiderus  materna 

Catapsilia  eubule  Erebus  odora 

"           philea  Euproctis  chrysorrhaea 

1  Contributed  by  the  New  York  Entomological  Society. 


82  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Papilio  ajax  Bombyx  mori 

philenor  Hydria  undulata 

polydamus  Eustroma  papulata 

inackaon  Rheumaptera  hastata 

troilus  "              tristata 

turnus  Philobia  notata 

glaucus  Eramis  defoliaria 

Pamphila  comma  Anagoga  pulveraria 

.(Ellopus  tantalus  Zeuzera  pyrina 

"        ixion  Sesia  culiciformis 

Triptogon  lugubris  "     tipuliformis 

Chcerocampa  tersa  Diaphamia  hyalinata 

Argeus  labruscae  Pyrausta  octomaculata 

Pachylia  ficus  Pyralis  farinalis 

Pholus  vitis  Crambus  puscuellus 

Pseudospbinx  tetrio  Calleria  mellonella 

Dilophonota  ello  Ophomia  sociella 

Phlegothontius  Carolina  Orneodes  hexadactyla 

Sphinx  pinastri  Olethreutea  hartmanniana 

Samia  cecropia  Carpopapsa  pomonella 

Coleoptera. 

Cicindela  Carolina  Ptinus  fur 

Virginia  Ernobius  mollis 

Elaphrus  riparius  Sitodrepa  panicea 

Blethisa  rnultipunctata  Phanseus  carnifex 

Loricera  cserulescens  Aphodius  fossor 

Bembidium  ustulatum  "          erraticus 

"           4-maculatum  "          fimetarius 

Casnonia  pennsylvanica  "          granariua 

Eretes  sticticus  Trox  scaber 

Dytiscus  marginalis  Polyphylla  occidentals 

Hydrobius  fuscipes  Peiidnota  punctata 

Splueridium  scarabseoides  Dynastes  tityus 

Cercyon  raelanocephalum  Cotinis  nitida 

unipunctatum  Euphoria  inda 

Silpha  americana  Mallodon  melanopus 

opaca  Prionus  imbricornis 

Staphylinus  erythropterus  Hylotrupes  bajulus 

Tachyporus  chrysomelinus  Achryson  surinamum 

Conosoma  littoreum  Tragidion  coquus 

Hippodamia  13-punctata  Leptura  sexmaculata 

Coccinella  trifasciata  Lagochirus  araneiformis 

"          sanguinea  Crioceris  asparagi 

Adalia  bipunctata  "         12-punctatus 

Harmonia  14-guttata  Adoxus  obscurus 

Chilocorua  cacti  "       vitis 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  83 

Hyperaspidius  trimaculatus  Prasocuris  Phellandrii 

Silvanus  surinamensis  Chrysomela  philadelphica 

Typhcea  fumata  Gastroidea  polygon! 

Dermestes  lardarius  Lina  lapponica 

Attagenus  pellio  Gonioctena  pallida 

Anthrenus  scrophulariae  Phyllodecta  vulgatissima 

"          musaeorum  Trirhabda  tomentossa 

Hister  bimaculatus  Crepidodera  rufipes 

Carpophilus  hemipterus  "           Helxines 

Epursea  sestiva  Modeeri 

Nitidtda  bipustulata  Bruchus  pisorum 

"        rufipes  "        chinensis 

Omosita  colon  Blaps  mortisaga 

Latridius  minutus  Unis  ceramboides 

Tenebriodes  mauritanica  Tenebrio  molitor 

Peltis  ferruginea  Nacerdes  melanura 

Cyphon  padi  Brachyderus  incanus 

Alaue  oculatus  Otiorhynchus  ovatus 

Corymbites  tesselatus  Elleschus  bipunctatus 

cruciatus  Clonus  scrophulariae 

Ellychnia  corrusca  Cryptorhynchus  lapathi 

Photinus  pyralis  Rhinoncus  p^ricarpius 

Buprestis  aurulenta  Brenthus  anchorago 

Lamphrohiza  splendida  Rhynchophorus  palraarum 

Necrobiaviolacea  Calandra  oryzse 

Hemiptera. 

Pachycoris  fabricii  Capsus  ater 

Euthyrhynchus  floridanus  Monalocoris  filicis 

Mormidea  ypsilon  Halticus  apterus 

Euscbistus  ictericus  Acanthia  lectularia 

Nezara  vividula  Coriscus  ferus 

Edessa  arabs  Arilus  cristatus 

Leptoglossus  phyllopus  Heza  acantharis 

balteatus  Zelus  longipes 

Ligyrocoris  sylvestris  Reduvius  personatus 

Embletbis  arenarius  Salda  littoralis 

Largus  succinctus  "      saltatoria 

Dysdercus  andrese  Corixa  etriata 

Leptopterna  dolobrata  Lygus  pabulinus 
Lygus  pratensis 

Diptera. 

Trichocera  regelationis  Eristalis  tenax 

Xiphura  atrata  Syritta  pipiens 

Chironomus  pedellus  Gastrophilus  haemorrhoidalis 
plumosus 


84  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

Orthocladius  barbicornis  (Estrus  oris 

Cricotopus  tremulus  (Edemagena  tarandri 

Tanypus  monilis  Melanophora  roralis 

Culex  pipiens  Cynomyia  mortuorum 

Scatapse  notata  Calliphora  vomitaria 

Simulius  reptans  Lucilia  xsesor 

Hermetia  illucens  Pyrellia  cadaverina 

Sargus  cuprarius  Musca  domestica 

Microchrysa  polita  Stomoxys  calcitrana 

Tabanus  mexicanus  Hamalomyia  canicularis 

Anthrax  moris  Anthomyia  pluvialis 

Bombylius  major  "          radicum 

Scenoppinus  fenestralis  Scatophaga  stercoraria 

Laphira  gilva  Tetanocera  umbrarum 

Erax  aestuans  Scaptera  nibrans 

Leucozona  lucorum  Themira  patris 

Lasiophthicus  pyrastri  Piophila  casei 

Syrphus  ribesii  Scyphella  flava 

Sphaerophoria  seripta  Hippobosca  equina 

Sericomyia  lappona  Ornithomyia  avicularia 

Doliosyrphus  nemorum  Melaphagus  ovinus 

Orthoptera. 

Forficula  auricularia  Stagmomatis  Carolina 

Labia  minor  Achurum  brevicornis 

Blatta  germanica  Dissosteira  Carolina 

Stylopyga  orientalis  Cyrtophyllus  perspicillatus 

Periplaneta  americana  Conocephalus  triops 

Pycnoscelus  surinamensis  Gryllus  domesticus 

Odonata. 

Trithemis  umbrata  Libellula  quadrimaculata 

Tramea  Carolina  ^Eschna  juncea 

Corredontia. 

Clothilla  pulsatoria  Psocus  sexpunctatus 
Csecilius  pedicularis 

Platyptera. 

Chauliodes  pectinicornis  Corydalus  cornutus 

Trichoptera. 

Limnophilus  rhombicus  Leptocerus  niger 
griseus 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  85 


The  Staten  Island  Association  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

It  has  been  said  by  Taine  that  "every  book  and  every  man  may  be 
reviewed  in  five  pages,  and  those  five  pages  in  five  lines."  On  this  occasion, 
however,  we  are  not  asked  to  review  the  life  or  the  books  of  the  man  in  whose 
honor  we  are  assembled,  but  to  testify  as  briefly  as  may  be  to  our  appreciation 
of  his  work  and  what  this  work  has  meant  to  his  posterity.  Such  a  task  is 
different  from  that  which  the  reviewer  is  ordinarily  called  upon  to  perform; 
and  to  do  it  justice  in  words,  within  a  reviewer's  recognized  limitations, 
would  be  impossible  in  connection  with  the  name  of  Linnaeus.  Fortunately, 
however,  words  are  not  necessary,  and  indeed  are  superfluous,  where  this 
appreciation  is  so  clearly  demonstrated  in  the  fact  that  we  accept  the  prin- 
ciples which  he  formulated,  and  pursue  the  methods  which  were  his,  in  all 
of  our  scientific  activities.  By  merely  recognizing  and  calling  attention  to 
this  fact,  we  show  our  respect  for  the  man  and  what  he  has  wrought  far 
better  than  by  even  the  most  earnest  and  sincere  attempt  to  express  our 
sentiments  in  words. 

Consciously  or  unconsciously  the  influence  of  Linnaeus  is  felt  by  all 
modern  scientific  workers.  System,  or  rather  the  ability  to  systematize, 
is  the  key  to  progress  in  all  lines  of  human  endeavor;  and  science  in  particular 
owes  its  present  commanding  position  to  those  who  have  recognized  and 
applied  the  principles  of  Linnaeus  in  their  work,  and  who  have  accepted 
and  applied  his  rules  for  the  nomenclature  of  natural  objects. 

Linnaeus  was  pre-eminently  a  systematist,  and  it  was  this  habit  of  mind, 
more  than  anything  else,  which  raised  him  above  his  contemporaries  in 
science.  Without  his  masterly  ability  to  co-ordinate  and  arrange  his  work 
in  logical  sequence  and  coherent  groupings,  his  great  powers  of  observation 
would  have  lacked  completeness.  This  ability  was  the  special  characteristic 
which  enabled  him  to  revolutionize  the  scientific  work  of  his  age  and  to 
influence  so  profoundly  all  that  has  followed. 

To  Linnaeus  may  well  be  applied  the  words  of  Bourget:  "In  life  every- 
thing is  unique,  and  nothing  happens  more  than  once." 

ARTHUR  HOLLICK,  Delegate. 


New  Tork  State  Museum. 

Linnets  contributions  to  systematic  biology  are  brilliantly  exemplified 
by  one  of  his  species  of  fossil  brachiopods,  the  Anomites  reticularis.  No 
organism  which  ever  appeared  in  the  long  history  of  the  earth  has  had  a 


86  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

career  so  noteworthy  for  the  stability  of  its  specific  characters.  It  made  its 
de"but  in  the  Midsilurian  era,  and  thence  onward  it  survived  through  the 
long  ages  of  the  Devonian  and  into  the  Carboniferous,  without  at  any  time 
departing  from  the  specific  type. 

Anomites  reticularis  stands  as  the  ideal  of  conservatism,  the  very  shib- 
boleth of  heredity,  Nature's  ultimate  expression  of  stability  in  the  organic 
world.  Its  life  was  the  longest  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  organic  species; 
its  period  beheld  the  rise  and  fall  of  many  another  race;  an  endless  procession 
of  creations  saluted  it  and  passed  on,  as  we  to-day,  after  two  hundred 
years,  salute  the  great  Swede,  and  pass  on  to  join  the  multitude. 

JOHN  M.  CLARKE,  Director. 


The  Buffalo  Society  of  Natural  Sciences. 

The  Buffalo  Society  of  Natural  Sciences,  in  expressing  its  thanks  to  your 
honorable  Society,  and  its  appreciation  of  its  privilege  in  being  permitted 
by  your  courteous  invitation  to  share  in  your  celebration  of  the  two  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Carl  von  Linne,  desires  to  add  its  tribute  of 
praise  to  the  memory  of  that  great  reformer  in  the  work  of  natural  science. 

The  world  must  ever  be  grateful  to  Linnaeus  for  the  wonderful  knowledge, 
born  of  close  and  accurate  observation,  and  for  the  clear  vision  and  admirable 
judgment  which  enabled  him  to  index  the  book  of  Nature,  to  substitute  order 
for  confusion,  and,  by  the  judicious  simplicity  of  the  laws  laid  down  by  him 
in  his  methods  of  classification,  to  convert,  what  before  his  time  had  been 
chaotic,  into  the  orderly  ways  that  characterize  the  modern  systematic 
study  of  botany  and  biology. 

To  him  and  to  his  work  we  turn  as  the  starting-point  for  these  scientific 
studies  which  since  his  day  have  been  so  nobly  developed  by  those  who  have 
been  his  successors. 

Though  his  system  may  have  been  superseded  by  the  philosophical 
conclusion  of  other  famous  workers  in  botanical  science  during  the  past  two 
centuries,  the  revolution  which  he  wrought  in  that  great  department  of 
nature  study,  the  lucidity  and  simplicity  of  the  reforms  in  method  which  he 
first  proposed,  have  crowned  him  as  one  of  the  greatest  leaders  known  to 
the  annals  of  science,  and  as  such  we  honor  and  revere  his  memory. 

We  ask  you  to  accept  our  felicitations  on  this  interesting  occasion. 

T.  GUILFORD  SMITH,  President. 
CARLOS  E.  CUMMINGS,  Secretary. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNAEUS  87 


The  American  Philosophical  Society. 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  held  at  Philadelphia  for  Promoting 
Useful  Knowledge  sends  cordial  greetings  to  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Carolus  Linnaeus. 

Out  of  the  mechanical  and  inorganic  systems  of  ancient  and  mediaeval 
times  this  great  Swedish  naturalist  constructed  an  organized  system,  which, 
assisted  by  the  binomial  nomenclature,  established  order  and  system  in  the 
natural  sciences.  This  system  has  guided  clearly  the  mind  of  man  in  the 
classification  of  natural  objects,  and  has  made  the  name  of  its  author 
immortal. 

In  the  year  1770  The  American  Philosophical  Society,  in  recognition 
of  the  valuable  services  Carolus  Linnaeus  rendered  to  science,  elected  him 
to  its  membership,  and  now,  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years  later,  this 
Society  takes  pleasure  in  uniting  with  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences 
in  doing  honor  to  his  memory. 

Signed  and  sealed  on  behalf  of  The  American  Philosophical  Society 
held  at  Philadelphia  for  Promoting  Useful  Knowledge. 

EDGAR  F.  SMITH,  President. 
J.  MINIS  HAYS,  Secretary. 


The  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  Washington,  D.C. 

I  am  directed  by  President  IRA  REMSEN  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences  to  convey  the  greetings  and  congratulations  of  the  National  Acad- 
emy on  this  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Linnaeus.  I  desire  to  present  a  brief  appreciation  of  Linnaeus 
from  the  standpoint  of  comparative  anatomy  and  classification  of  the 
mammalia. 

The  period  of  Linnaeus  was  that  of  his  active  scientific  life,  between  1730 
and  1795.  Linnaeus  did  not  introduce  the  term  "Mammalia"  until  the 
tenth  edition  of  the  "Systema"  (1758).  In  following  the  suggestions  of 
Ray,  Bernard  de  Jussieu,  and,  it  is  also  claimed,  of  Blumenbach,  he  sepa- 
rated the  hairy  quadrupeds,  the  manatees  and  whales,  as  a  single  class, 
noting  among  the  distinctive  characters  the  position  of  the  mammae  and  the 
hairy  covering.  His  education  as  a  physician  qualified  him  to  define  the 
class  through  the  internal  anatomical  characters, —  the  heart,  the  lungs, 
the  sense  organs, —  as  well  as  through  external  characters.  In  arranging 


88  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

the  mammals  he  sought  for  natural  groupings,  and  endeavored  to  find  the 
hidden  bonds  of  structural  affinity  as  indicated  by  comparative  anatomy, 
although  he  did  not  recognize  that  the  real  basis  of  affinity  is  to  be  found  in 
kinship  of  evolution  from  similar  ancestral  forms. 

His  scientific  independence  and  genius  were  indicated  especially  by  his 
inclusion  of  man  with  the  apes  and  monkeys  in  the  order  Primates.  It  was 
a  mark  of  genius  that  Linnaeus  felt  the  force  of  the  anatomical  likeness  of 
man  to  his  lower  relatives  and  that  he  had  the  courage  to  definitely  ally  him 
with  them  from  a  strictly  zoological  view-point.  This  is  the  very  starting- 
point  of  all  modern  philosophy,  that  man  is  linked  by  ties  of  blood  kinship 
to  the  whole  organic  world. 

That  Linnseus's  system  is  based  in  part  on  adaptive  resemblances  or 
analogies,  rather  than  on  structural  affinities  or  homologies,  is  not  surprising, 
because  it  is  only  recently  that  naturalists  have  been  able  to  distinguish 
analogies  from  homologies. 

HENRY  FAIRFIELD  OSBORN,  Delegate. 


The  Smithsonian  Institution  of  Washington,  D.C. 

The  Smithsonian  Institution,  uniting  with  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences  in  its  appreciation  of  Carl  von  Linne",  cordially  accepts  its  invitation 
to  participate  in  exercises  commemorative  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  the  great  Swedish  naturalist. 

The  Smithsonian  Institution,  in  response  to  the  invitation  to  take  part  in 
the  Academy's  celebration  of  the  bicentenary  by  an  appreciative  record  of 
the  work  of  von  Linne",  needs  only  to  recall  the  great  impulse  which  he  gave 
to  natural  science  by  his  industry  and  methods,  and  the  facility  for  expression 
of  facts  by  his  binomial  system  of  nomenclature.  But  the  philosophic 
generalization  which  was  recorded  in  the  name  of  Mammalia  may  be  espe- 
cially recalled  as  the  greatest  morphological  triumph  of  the  Linnaean  era. 

CHAS.  D.  WALCOTT,  Secretary. 


The  Biological  Society  of  Washington,  Washington,  D.C. 

The  Biological  Society  of  Washington  acknowledges  with  pleasure  the 
invitation  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  to  take  part  in  its  cele- 
bration of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Carl  von  Linne", 
and  is  glad  to  unite  in  paying  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  man  who 
is  justly  regarded  as  the  father  of  the  biological  sciences. 


BICENTENARY  OF  LINNMUS  89 

It  is,  in  fact,  scarcely  possible  to  overestimate  the  influence  his  work  and 
personality  had  in  shaping  the  future  of  botany  and  zoology;  and  coming 
generations  of  biologists  will  continue  to  rejoice,  as  we  now  do,  that  he  laid 
the  foundations  of  their  science  so  deep  and  so  broad. 

The  vocabulary  of  superlatives  to  praise  his  genius  has  long  since  been 
exhausted;  but  we  who  daily  and  hourly  profit  by  the  laws  he  enunciated 
may  well  pause  in  our  work  to  exult  because,  two  hundred  years  ago,  Sweden 
gave  to  the  world  a  light  that  will  continue  to  shed  luster  upon  her  name  so 
long  as  the  biological  sciences  exist. 

LEONHARD  STEJNEGER,  President. 
WILFRED  H.  OSGOOD,   Secretary. 


The  Indiana  Academy  of  Sciences,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

The  criterion  by  which  a  man's  greatness  is  judged  is  his  work.  If  this 
gains  recognition  from  his  contemporaries,  he  is  successful;  if  his  name 
lives  to  be  honored  by  succeeding  generations,  his  career  has  been  more  than 
successful,  he  has  achieved  fame;  but,  if  he  leaves  behind  him  some  piece  of 
work  or  the  record  of  some  discovery  from  which  his  successors  reckon  time, 
his  is  a  distinction  which  comes  to  few  men,  and  to  which  none  dare  aspire. 
Such  is  the  record  of  Linnaeus.  He  was  a  recognized  leader  among  his 
contemporaries;  his  co-ordination  of  the  chaos  which  then  existed  in  the 
natural  sciences  gave  him  fame;  and  the  successful  application  of  the  bino- 
mial system  of  nomenclature  to  animals  and  plants  made  his  works  the  point 
from  which  the  taxonomist  measures  time.  Nor  is  the  homage  the  expression 
of  the  whim  of  a  group  of  hero- worshipers.  To-day  the  system  of  Linnaeus 
is  discarded  by  taxonomists,  and  much  of  his  work  is  forgotten ;  but  as  long 
as  systematic  botany  and  zoology  have  their  devotees  among  men  of  science, 
so  long  will  his  name  be  remembered  and  his  fame  endure  as  the  one  who 
first  brought  the  binomial  system  of  nomenclature  into  general  use. 

GUY  WEST  WILSON,  for  the  Academy. 


The  Colorado  Scientific  Society,  Denver,  Colo. 

The  Colorado  Scientific  Society,  the  oldest  and  largest  scientific  associa- 
tion of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region,  sends  greeting  to  its  elder  sister  in  the 
metropolis  of  America,  and  extends  congratulations  on  the  successful  com- 
pletion of  the  memorial  in  honor  of  the  world's  greatest  botanist.  How 
great  must  be  the  power  of  the  savant  whose  influence  can  extend  over 


90  ANNALS  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCE 

such  great  gulfs  of  space  and  time  as  those  which  separate  the  sage  of 
Upsala  from  the  naturalists  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  lands  of  the 
midnight  sun  from  the  dome  of  the  North  American  Continent,  the  dawn 
of  the  eighteenth  from  that  of  the  twentieth  century! 

In  common  with  the  rest  of  the  scientific  world,  we  are  greatly  indebted 
to  him  who  initiated  the  modern  system  of  a  concise  and  descriptive  nomen- 
clature, to  him  who  found  "biology  a  chaos,  and  left  it  a  cosmos,"  and  to 
him  who  made  it  possible  for  finite  minds  to  grasp  the  thoughts  of  the  Infinite 
in  the  world  of  life. 

Colorado  is  especially  indebted  to  Linnaeus  from  the  fact  that,  owing  to 
the  general  similarity  of  our  Alpine  flora  to  the  plants  of  the  Scandinavian 
Alps,  a  large  portion  of  our  mountain  plants  was  originally  described  by  the 
father  of  botany,  and  so  well  classified  and  described,  that  the  notoriety- 
seeking,  hair-splitting  species-makers  do  not  venture  to  meddle  with  the 
work  of  the  master  hand. 

We  are  proud  of  the  fact  that  on  the  snowy  summits  of  our  higher  peaks 
grows  in  abundance  the  tiny  pink-tipped  flower  which  the  innate  modesty 
of  the  true  savant  led  him  to  select  from  all  the  wealth  of  the  floral  world  to 
perpetuate  his  name  in  coming  generations. 

G.  L.  CANNON,  President. 


University  of  California 

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