[6] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. xvi. c. iii. sect. 3.
[7] For instance, whether the fagus of the Latins be the beech or the chestnut.
[8] Ib. b. xvi. c. iii. sect. 2.
II. Probably one main cause which so long retarded the work of fixing at the same time the arrangement and the names of plants, was the great number of minute and diversified particulars in the structure of each plant which such a process implied. The stalks, leaves, flowers, and fruits of vegetables, with their appendages, may vary in so many ways, that common language is quite insufficient to express clearly and precisely their resemblances and differences. Hence botany required not only a fixed system of names of plants, but also an artificial system of phrases fitted to describe their parts: not only a Nomenclature, but also 272 a Terminology. The Terminology was, in fact, an instrument indispensably requisite in giving fixity to the Nomenclature. The recognition of the kinds of plants must depend upon the exact comparison of their resemblances and differences; and to become a part of permanent science, this comparison must be recorded in words.
The formation of an exact descriptive language for botany was thus the first step in that systematic construction of the technical language of science, which is one of the main features in the intellectual history of modern times. The ancient botanists, as De Candolle[9] says, did not make any attempt to select terms of which the sense was rigorously determined; and each of them employed in his descriptions the words, metaphors, or periphrases which his own genius suggested. In the History of Botany[10], I have noticed some of the persons who contributed to this improvement. ‘Clusius,’ it is there stated, ‘first taught botanists to describe well. He introduced exactitude, precision, neatness, elegance, method: he says nothing superfluous; he omits nothing necessary.’ This task was further carried on by Jung and Ray[11]. In these authors we see the importance which began to be attached to the exact definition of descriptive terms; for example, Ray quotes Jung’s definition of Caulis, a stalk.
[9] Theor. Elem. de Bot. p. 327.
[10] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. xvi. c. iii. sect. 3.
[11] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. xvi. c. iii. sect. 3 (about a.d. 1660).
The improvement of descriptive language, and the formation of schemes of classification of plants, went on gradually for some time, and was much advanced by Tournefort. But at last Linnæus embodied and followed out the convictions which had gradually been accumulating in the breasts of botanists; and by remodelling throughout both the terminology and the nomenclature of botany, produced one of the greatest reforms which ever took place in any science. He thus supplied a conspicuous example of such a reform, and a most admirable model of a language, from which 273 other sciences may gather great instruction. I shall not here give any account of the terms and words introduced by Linnæus. They have been exemplified in the History of Science[12]; and the principles which they involve I shall consider separately hereafter. I will only remind the reader that the great simplification in nomenclature which was the result of his labours, consisted in designating each kind of plant by a binary term consisting of the name of the genus combined with that of the species: an artifice seemingly obvious, but more convenient in its results than could possibly have been anticipated.
[12] Ib. c. iv. sect. 1–3.