He now left Hartecamp with a resolution to return to Sweden. But on a visit to Van Royen, Botanical Professor at Leyden, who had quarrelled with Boerhaave, he was prevailed upon to remain and assist him in publishing a new arrangement of the Leyden garden. This garden had been arranged by Boer haave. Van Royen proposed to adopt the Linnæan method, but Linnæus out of gratitude to his patron and benefactor, would not listen to this, but suggested a new arrangement, which might be published as Van Royen's own. This plan was adopted, and the arrangement which in fact belonged to Linnæus was published accordingly. While Linnæus lived with Van Royen he published two other works, the first the Ichthyology of Artedi, his early and particular friend, who had been drowned at Leyden about three years before. The second was his Classes Plantarum, in which he gave a critical view of the 16 universal, and 13 partial systems of arrangement which had been introduced into botany before his own time, pointed out the defects and excellencies of each, and finally compared them with his own system. These different publications had raised the reputation of Linnæus to the highest pitch, and his new system began already to be adopted by various distinguished botanists in different countries. During the whole of this period he had corresponded with his intended bride through the intervention of a common friend for whom he had procured a professor's chair. This friend unfortunately conceived a passion for Miss Moræus, and endeavoured to supplant Linnæus, by representing to her father that Linnæus had remained abroad much longer than his stipulated time, and that there was no prospect of his ever returning to Sweden. Luckily another friend of Linnæus got intimation of the plan, warned Linnæus of his danger, and assured Moræus that his intended son-in-law would infallibly return to his own country, and very speedily too. This intelligence threw Linnæus into a sort of melancholy; he was seized with a fever, and after his recovery resolved to leave Holland without delay. Being so near France he could not resist the temptation of paying a short visit to Paris, and of getting personally acquainted with those botanists with whom he had previously corresponded by letter. Here he was received with politeness and attention; though the French, from their predilection for Tournefort and Vaillant, were but little disposed to adopt his systematic views. After a residence of about a month in Paris he went on board a ship at Returns to Rouen, and in five days reached Helsingburg, in Scania, whence he set out for Sweden. Stockholm. Here he attempted the practice of medicine, relying upon the reputation which he had acquired to pave his way to employment. For some time he met with nothing but disappointment. Every body was disposed to view his reputation with jealousy and malignity. His wretched antagonist Siegesbeek was every where cried up as having completely overcome him. In G Becomes a Upsal. this situation Haller offered to give up in his favour the Botanical Professorship of Gottingen. But before he received Haller's letter, fortune began to smile upon him, and to promise him fortunate days in Sweden. The cure of a fashionable distemper struck the young Swedes with surprize, and recommended him to practice in similar cases. His cures were successful, and his advice became the fashion. He rose in reputation every day, and was called to the lady of an Aulic counsellor troubled with a cough. He prescribed a medicine which she carried about with her for constant use. One day, while at a card party with Queen Ulrica Eleonora, this lady made use of her medicine. The Queen inquired what it was, and was informed that it was a remedy for the cough which always procured speedy relief. Her Majesty was troubled with a cough at that very time. She sent for Linnæus, who prescribed the remedy, and the disease vanished. This fortunate accident brought Linnæus into the first practice at Stockholm. His great and constant patron was Count Charles Gustavus Tessin. By his influence Linnæus was appointed Physician to the Admiralty, and Botanist to the King. Having now a settled income, he married Miss Moræus, five years after he had procured her father's conditional consent. The Stockholm Academy was established about this time, and Linnæus was appointed the First President. In 1741, he made a tour through the islands of land and Gothland, at the expence and by orders of the Diet, in order to ascertain their mineral and vegetable productions. The same year he was appointed Professor of Physic and Anatomy, in the University of Upsal, in room of Roberg who had retired with the whole of his salary. His old antagonist Rosen had the year before been appointed Professor of Botany. The emoluments of both Professorships were equal. They accordingly agreed, with the approbation of the Senate, to exchange their respective chairs, that each might teach the science for which he was best adapted. Thus Linnæus got the botanical chair at Upsal, the original object of his ambition, which he continued to fill for 37 years with greater glory than any literary man in Sweden had ever obtained. His exertions, during the whole of this period, were uncommonly great. He became the legislator of botany. His pupils carried his reputation to all parts of the world; and, actuated by that enthusiasm which he so successfully inspired, they carried their researches to the remotest countries, and scrupled not to sacrifice their lives to the improvement of their favourite science. Thus botanical knowledge increased with a rapidity altogether unexampled. The number of genera was almost doubled before the death of Linnæus, and since that period the rate of increase has rather accelerated than diminished. South America, New Holland, and New Zealand, have been recently explored, and have added prodigiously to the number of botanical species. But this is a field into which we cannot with propriety enter, as it is scarcely, if at all, connected with the labours Linnæan of the Royal Society. Here therefore we shall close our account of the arrangement and description of plants, remarking only that the Linnæan arrangement, which has been almost universally embraced, though upon the whole decidedly superior to every other, is notwithstanding of very unequal merit, some Improveparts being much more perfect than others. To the cryptogamous plants Lin- ments in the næus paid much less attention than to the rest. Hence his arrangement of system. them has been found inadequate and inexact, and it has been thought necessary to alter it very materially. Hedwig is the person to whom we are most indebted for his labours in this department. With a patient industry which admirably fitted him for the task which he undertook, he devoted his life chiefly to the investigation of the musci, and has thrown them into new genera much more satisfactory and much more easily investigated than the genera of Linnæus. The lichens, fungi, and fuci, have been successfully investigated by various distinguished botanists of Great-Britain, most of whom are still alive, and actively prosecuting their meritorious investigations. Of the other Linnæan classes perhaps the most defective are the tetradynamia and syngynesia, in both of which a variety of very exceptionable genera might be pointed out; genera founded entirely upon the arbitrary will of Linnæus, and of course accompanied by descriptions so imperfect, that a beginner finds it extremely difficult to make out the plants alluded to. This imperfection seems owing to the too great attention which Linnæus paid to the flower, and his total disregard of the seed in constituting the genera. Whereas in these two classes the seed is in fact of much more importance than the flower. It would be easy to point out some other parts of the Linnæan classification by no means adequate to the purpose for which it was intended; but it would not be so easy in these cases to apply the proper remedy. SECTION 2. Of the Anatomy and Physiology of Plants. This branch of botany possesses more dignity than the preceding. It opens Importance. to our view some of those beautiful contrivances which nature follows to accomplish her purposes, and which irresistibly lead the enlightened observer to the knowledge of the existence and benevolence of an all-powerful intelligent being. This branch of knowledge, important as it is, is entirely modern, and owes its origin to the Royal Society, by the Members of which the investigation was begun, and by whom almost every fact relating to the subject hitherto established has been ascertained. These investigations however are not all to be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society. The most important have been published in separate treatises, either at the expence or at least with the concurrence of the Royal Society. The papers in the Transactions relating to Papers on the this subject amount to 60. But of these there are 22 which can hardly be con- Transactions. subject in the sidered as of any value. Subsequent investigations and more complete disco Grew's work. Malpighi wrote on the subject. coveries have rendered several of the remaining 38 of comparatively little importance, except in a historical point of view. Some of the most curious papers, on the subject of vegetable functions, have been printed in those volumes of the Transactions, which have made their appearance since the year 1800. These, of course, cannot, with propriety, come under our review. The first person who began the anatomical examination of plants, was Dr. Nehemiah Grew. He was born in Coventry, about the year 1628. His father, who was a nonconformist, sent him abroad at an early age; and he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in a Foreign University. After his return to England, he settled in London, became a Fellow of the Medical College, and practised medicine, with some degree of success, till the period. of his death, in 1711. He began to turn his attention to the anatomy of plants, as early as the year 1664. In 1670, he put an essay on the subject, which constitutes the first book of his Inatomy of Plants, into the hands of his brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Sampson, who shewed it to Mr. Henry Oldenburg, at that time Secretary to the Royal Society. By Mr. Oldenburg, it was given to Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester; by whom the manuscript was read to the Royal Society. That learned body highly approved of it, and ordered it to be printed in 1671. At the suggestion of Dr. Wilkins, Dr. Grew was appointed Curator to the Royal Society, for the Anatomy of Plants. This occasioned the drawing up of the 2d, 3d, and 4th parts of his Anatomy of Plants; and of the various lectures on the same subject, which constitute a part of that work. The whole of these papers were written between the years 1670 and 1676; and read at intervals, during various meetings of the Royal Society. The whole were collected in 1682, and published in a folio volume, by the orders of the Society. It constitutes the book well known by the name of Grew's Anatomy of Plants; a book which contains a great deal of valuable and important matter; and which has always been in high estimation, and referred to as a classical work on the subject. In the year 1671, after the first part of Dr. Grew's labours were printed, Malpighi, the celebrated Italian Anatomist, and a Member of the Royal Society, sent over a manuscript treatise on the the same subject. It was without figures, and much more concise than the essay of Dr. Grew. The second part of Malpighi's treatise was received in 1674; after which, the work was printed by the Royal Society. Thus, Malpighi began his investigation without any previous knowledge of what had been already done by Grew. His work, as might have been expected from so great a master of anatomical knowledge, is excellent; though the plan is more circumscribed, and the quantity of knowledge communicated upon the whole, is less than is to be found in the work of Grew. There is a very remarkable agreement in the sentiments of these two writers respecting most of the subjects which they describe. This agreement is the more striking, because it holds, not merely in their descriptions, which might have been expected, supposing both correct, but likewise in physiological opinions, and deductions from their observations. Dr. Stephen Hales, one of the most celebrated names of the last century, the Hales. philosopher who laid open the passage to pneumatic chemistry, which has added so much to our knowledge of nature, and who investigated the functions of animals and vegetables with much patient industry and uncommon success, began his experiments on plants soon after the death of Dr. Grew. He was born on the 7th September, 1677, in the county of Kent. He was descended of an ancient family, his father being a Baronet. He was educated at Cambridge, and immediately distinguished himself by his uncommon industry and skill. He went into orders as early as the age of twenty-five, and was successfully placed in various livings, where he discharged his duty with the most conscientious fidelity. His discoveries were all laid before the Royal Society, as soon as made, and his works were published by order of that learned body. The first volume of his Statical Essays, which contains almost all his experiments on plants, was published in 1727;* the second, in 1733. the second, in 1733. He modified some of the opinions of Grew and Ray, relating to the supposed circulation of the sap; and such was the weight of his reputation, that his sentiments seem to have been implicitly adopted by all his contemporaries; though the recent discoveries of modern experimenters have shown us that his opinions, on the subject of the motion of the sap, were not quite correct. Besides his Stutical Essays, he was the author of several other celebrated performances; the most remarkable of which were his Essay against the Use of Spirits; his experiments on Freshening Sea Water, and preserving Meat during long Sea Voyages; and his Ventilator; for purifying the air of ships, and other confined places." He died on the 4th January, 1761, aged nearly 80 years. Duhamel de Monceau, a French philosopher, of a high and well-merited Duhamel.. reputation, took up the subject where Hales laid it down. In his book, entitled, Physique des Arbres, first published in 1757, he relates many ingenious experiments, confirming and extending the opinions of Hales. He investigated also the texture of trees; traced the position of the sap vessels; and endeavoured to give precision and extension to the doctrines of Grew and Malpighi, on these subjects. He ventures, in some cases, to call in question the accuracy of the conclusions drawn by these first observers, and has advanced new opinions of his own; all of them extremely ingenious, and supported by well-contrived experiments, some of which have been confirmed by subsequent enquirers; while the accuracy of others has been called in question, and, in some cases, destroyed. * Part of it was read to the Royal Society, in 1719, the year after his admission into that learned body. |