Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/119

 Linnaeus are interesting, because like other remarks of his they show that he placed the establishment and arrangement of the larger groups above the mere distinguishing of individual forms; his disciples to a great extent forgot their master's teaching, and fancied that the collecting and distinguishing of species was systematic botany. He opposes the system itself, which deals with the relative conceptions of classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties, to a mere synoptical view, serving with its dichotomy only to practical ends. Then comes the often-quoted sentence, 'We reckon so many species as there were distinct forms created "in principio."' In a former place he had said 'ab initio' instead of 'in principio'; instead therefore of a beginning in time he here posits an ideal, theoretical beginning, which is more in accordance with his philosophical views. That new species can arise is, he continues, disproved by continuous generation and propagation, and by daily observation, and by the cotyledons. It is hard to understand how the Linnaean school till far into our own century could have remained firm in a doctrine resting on such arguments as these. Linnaeus' definition of varieties shows that he understood by the word species fundamentally distinct forms; there are, he says, as many varieties as there are different plants growing from the seed of the same species; and he adds that a variety owes its origin to an accidental cause, such as climate, soil, warmth, the wind; but this is evidently mere arbitrary assumption. Judging by all he says, his view is that species differ in their inner nature, varieties only in outward form. Here, where we find the dogma of the constancy of species for the first time expressed in precise terms, a dogma generally accepted till the appearance of the theory of descent, we should be justified in demanding proof; but since dogmas as a rule do not admit of proof, Linnaeus simply states his view, unless we are to take the sentence, 'negat generatio