All this classification relates to accurate observation and description, and then to comparison, and the greater the knowledge of the botanist of species and genera the more useful it is. There is a difficulty in selecting those parts of a plant which should be those on which the classification should depend, and this was the stumbling-block with these early botanists. Ray saw the value of the seed and of the reproductive organs in classification, and Tournefort, although he erred in classifying his “classes” by the coloured part of the flower or corolla, followed nature accurately in his description, and reasoned upon the facts he had discovered.
This botanist, who lived in the days of great luxury, and when war was almost constant, pursued his useful and simple career, and by his collections alone, assisted in laying the foundations of botany as a science. His travels in the East read like romances, for the habits of Eastern nations were then but little known; and, moreover, the diligent student was a scholar, and paid great attention to the splendid antiquities which he constantly saw. Tournefort studied the zoology of the countries he passed through, and was an adept in mineralogy. On his return from his long journey in the East he was made Professor of Medicine to the College de France. For the future his life was destined to be quiet, happy it appears always to have been. Year after year he laboured in arranging, cultivating, and describing the treasure of plants he had brought from the East and elsewhere. Moreover, he taught as professor. His end was sudden, for he met with an accident in the street, and was killed by a passing waggon.
Tournefort’s important work was the forming a great amount of good knowledge about the species of plants, and the arranging them in a systematic order. But, as has been mentioned, he was a founder of the science of the distribution of plants. He appears to have laboured independently of Ray, his English fellow-botanist, whose method was the best of the two. There are twenty-two classes in Tournefort’s method, chiefly arranged, as has been stated, by the form of the corolla, comparatively an unimportant structure. He distinguishes herbs and under-shrubs on the one hand, from trees and shrubs on the other. His system of classification was much used on the Continent, until it was found to be less easy of application than that of Linnæus.
The life of Ray, by Dr. Derham and Sir J. E. Smith, is to be found in the “Memorials of John Ray,” in the publications of the Ray Society, 1846.
CHAPTER III.
THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS.
The science of plants begins to mature, to be reformed, and to be made more exact.
Carl Linnæus was born in the month of May, 1707, at Rashult, in the parish of Stenbrohult, in Smaland, a province in the South of Sweden. His father, Nils Linnæus, was assistant minister of the parish, and became, in process of time, its pastor or rector, having married the daughter of his predecessor.[1]