Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 1 (1791).djvu/197



XV. ''Observations on the Language of Botany. By the Rev. Thomas Martyn, B. D. F. R. S. Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of the Linnean Society. In a Letter addressed to the President.''

SIR,

HAVE little doubt of your agreeing with me in opinion, that nothing has contributed more to the rapid progress which the science of Botany has made within the last thirty or forty years, than the excellent language which Linnæus invented, and which has been by common consent adopted, not only by those who follow the systematic arrangement of the illustrious Swede, but by all who study Botany as a science. Without pretending to any peculiar foresight, we may venture to affirm, that the Linnean language will continue to be in use, even though his system should in after ages be neglected; and that it will be received into every country where the science of Botany is studied, with certain modifications adapting it respectively to each vernacular tongue.

So long as Botany was confined to the learned few, there was no difficulty in using the terms of the Linnean language, exactly as the author had delivered it: but now that it is become a general pursuit, not only of the scholar, but of such as have not had what is called a learned education; and since the fair sex have adopted