Linnean Society of London

“ Turning his attention early to natural history, he became a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1798, and in 1801 contributed a paper ‘On the Hinges of British Bivalve Shells’ to the ‘Transactions’ of that society. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1812. About 1801 he removed to London, where he practised till 1815, when he entered into business as a bookseller in the Strand, dealing chiefly in works on natural history. ”

“ XV. A Botanical History of the Genus Tofieldia.⁠By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S.
Read January 21, 1817.
Notwithstanding the assiduous labours of so many acute and learned men in the field of Botany for three centuries past, much still remains to be done in the mere determination of species. All our care and watchfulness are still requisite, to keep the science clear of confusion, even in the history and discrimination of Europæan plants. No accurate and scientific student will find any want of employment, or of well-deserved credit, in the exclusive cultivation of this field. ”

“ Hill himself sometimes falls into error in his criticisms; thus he adversely comments on the truth of the power of cobwebs to catch thrushes [10] .
At the beginning of Part VII of his Review, which treats of plants, he thrusts very deep. He says, "This is a Branch of Natural Knowledge, which, it will appear, that the Royal Society of London have looked so very deeply into, that their rejecting the Linnean System of Botany, when offered by its Author will no longer be wondered at." ”

“ On exactly the same principles, the very large number of species of plants, insects, and birds, in Europe and North America, either absolutely identical or represented by very closely allied species, most assuredly indicates that some means of land communication in temperate or sub-arctic latitudes existed at no very distant geological epoch; and though many naturalists are inclined to regard all such views as vague and unprofitable speculations, we are convinced they will soon take their place among the legitimate deductions of science. ”

“ No species required an elucidation more than the Orchis militaris; for Linnæus has introduced so many varieties, and they are so badly supported by synonyms, that it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to make out what he means. It is to be feared that English botanists in general have not understood them, and that they have still further perplexed the subject. My object, therefore, on the present occasion is to point out what I conceive to be the English species, which have been called, since the time of Linnæus, by the name of Orchis militaris. ”

“ But even the error of this great man has on the present occasion proved beneficial to science, by repressing that prevailing propensity among botanists to increase too much the number of species: for no writer has since presumed to take up any of those rejected by him, without mature consideration and well-grounded proof.
Retzius, Pallas, and Murray are the principal botanists who have described Pæonies with precision after Linné, and their descriptions are excellent as far as they go ”

“ We know that it has been experimentally shown that a plot of land will yield a greater weight if sown with several species and genera of grasses, than if sown with only two or three species. Now, every organic being, by propagating so rapidly, may be said to be striving its utmost to increase in numbers. So it will be with the offspring of any species after it has become diversified into varieties, or subspecies, or true species. ”

“ In 1745 Linnæus received the Herbarium of Herman, from which he composed his Flora Zeylanica: the fourth volume of this collection containing a mixture of Ceylon and African plants, the latter are not noticed in this work; but from an inspection of the Herbarium itself, now in the Banksian collection, it appears that he had added generic names to most of them: of Proteæ only three species exist in the volume, of which Protea conocarpa is one: of this there are on the same page to specimens, whose heads of flowers are separately pasted ”

“ Variations in unimportant parts might also occur, having no perceptible effect on the life-preserving powers; and the varieties so furnished might run a course parallel with the parent species, either giving rise to further variations or returning to the former type. All we argue for is, that certain varieties have a tendency to maintain their existence longer than the original species, and this tendency must make itself felt ”

“ Each new variety or species, when formed, will generally take the place of, and thus exterminate its less well-fitted parent. This I believe to be the origin of the classification and affinities of organic beings at all times; for organic beings always seem to branch and sub-branch like the limbs of a tree from a common trunk, the flourishing and diverging twigs destroying the less vigorous—the dead and lost branches rudely representing extinct genera and families. ”

“ An economy no less remarkable than that of the Mangroves, but of a nature diametrically opposite, takes place in the bulb-like seeds of certain liliaceous plants, especially of Pancratium, Crinum and Amaryllis; in some of whose species the seed separates from the plant, and even from the pericarpium, before the embryo becomes visible. ”

“ It may seem rather paradoxical to select Euphorbia as an example of the same relation; this genus being considered by Linneus, and the greater part of the botanists who have adopted his system, as having a dodecandrous hermaphrodite flower. We have already, however, I believee sufficient evidence that this supposed hermaphrodite flower is in reality formed of several monandrous male flowers surrounding a single female [4] . ”

“ HAVING had the good fortune to procure fine specimens of the male and female of a singular bird from New South Wales, which the natives of that country call the Merion Binnion, or Cassowary-Bird, and as it is a species at present very little known, I am induced to present to the President and Members of the Linnæan Society an accurate drawing of both specimens, in hopes that it may be found worthy of their acceptance. I am sorry that I cannot at the same time furnish the Society with an accurate account of its manners. ”

“ For this reason too it ought not to be used in the capsular or drupaceous genera, in which indeed experience
proves it to be of no further moment than in distinguishing species.
Dr. Smith has given it as his opinion, that from the disposition of leaves in New Holland plants no conclusion can safely be drawn as to their genera. This remark however appears to me only applicable to certain families, or rather genera; for in many tribes the plants of that country are altogether as constant in their leaves as in any other part of the world. ”

“ He observes that, while the greater number grow irregularly scattered and mixed with each other, there are some which form considerable masses, or even extensive tracts, to the nearly absolute exclusion of other species. Of plants growing this in society, the greater number occur in the temperate zones ”

“ These and other exceptions, which will readily present themselves to any one who considers the subject, being admitted; the advantage of the science will be most effectually consulted by retaining the Linnean terms, whenever there is no cogent reason to the contrary. ”

“ Mrs. Hardcastle of Derby, to whom I am indebted for the drawings now laid before the Linnæan Society, regrets that she only heard of this curious vegetable production by accident, after it had lain by ten months in a dry state. ”

“ Darwin has for many years past been repeatedly urged by us to do so, and both authors having now unreservedly placed their papers in our hands, we think it would best promote the interests of science that a selection from them should be laid before the Linnean Society. ”

“ Such was doubtless the plant of the Hortus Cliffortianus, which appears by the Viridarium Cliffortianum to have been cultivated at Hartecamp, and was therefore seen alive by Linnæus. Such likewise is T. apulum of Jacquin, Hort. Vindob. v. 1. t. 53, which that author afterwards finding not to answer to the synonym of Columna, he thought he had mistaken the Linnæan name, and in the 3d volume of the same work, p. ”

“ I am aware of no other spot upon the earth which contains a number of species, in several distinct classes of animals, the nearest allies to which do not exist in any of the countries which on every side surround it, but which are to be found only in another primary division of the globe, separated from them all by a vast expanse of ocean. In no other case are the species of a genus or the genera of a family distributed in two distinct areas separated by countries in which they do not exist ”

“ But with respect to this continent, it may be observed, that the number of species seems to be comparatively small, their organization but little varied; and further, that they have a
much greater affinity with those of New Holland than of Africa.
Of the botany of South Africa, scarce any thing is known, except that of the Cape of Good Hope, where this family occurs in the greatest abundance and variety; but even from the single fact of a genuine species of Protea having been found in Abyssinia by Bruce, it may be presumed, that in some degree they are also spread over this continent. ”

“ On the west coast also, the species upon the whole are more similar to those of Africa than on the east, where they bear a somewhat greater resembland to the American portion of the order.
From the parallel of the mass, the order diminishes in both directions; but the diminution towards the north is probably more rapid on the east than on the west coast.
Within the tropic, on the east coast, no genera have hitherto been observed, which are not also found beyond it; unless that section of Grevillea, which I have called Cyclopteræ, be considered as a genus. ”

“ Now this is precisely the case with what I have above described as the inner perianthium of Brunonia, the outer one, of four leaves, not being analogous to any thing in Scabiosa, except the solitary scales or leaves in many species accompanying each flower. Can it be possible, therefore, that what I have taken for the inner is really the only perianthium in Brunonia, and exactly analogous to the outer one in Scabiosa? They both alike, in an indurated state, envelop and crown the ripe seed.
If habit were to be much insisted on, nothing can be stronger in my favour ”

“ But whatever their functions may be, great assistance may certainly be derived from their various modifications, in distinguishing genera. Their importance however in this respect, like that of all other parts, not only in this, but, as I apprehend, in every natural family, is very unequal, and in some cases seems to be entirely lost. Thus, in the genus Leucadendron as it is here constituted, they are wanting in several species, and in some I am inclined to think exist only in the males. ”

“ There is nothing like a central pith. And yet the brown external coat, though not separable like the bark of a root, bears so great a resemblance to that part, as almost to stagger my opinion. The taste of the dried plant has nothing of a fungus-like flavour, but in its slight astringency agrees with many, almost tasteless, roots. The above history of the origin of the plant, from a piece of wrought wood, and its copious growth, must preclude all idea of its being any thing else than a parasitical fungus. ”

“ Nothing can be more distinct as a species; but it was not well ascertained when Dr. Sibthorp began his travels, which will account for his adverting to the American Liquidambar only.
There still remains great difficulty in accounting for the introduction of this tree into Cyprus, and for its becoming so famous there. The plant is not known to have been cultivated in England, much before the end of the seventeenth century, scarcely fifty years before Pococke found it, apparently long established in Cyprus. The Venetians were owners of this island from the year 1480 to 1570 ”

“ The most numerous genera are also the most widely diffused. Thus Grevillea, Hakea, Banksia, and Persoonia, extensive in species in the order in which they are here mentioned, are spread nearly in the same proportion; and they are likewise the only genera that have as yet been observed within the tropic.
Of such of the remaining genera, as consist of several species, some, as Isopogon, Petrophila, Conospermum, and Lambertia, are found in every part of the principal parallel, but hardly exist beyond it. ”

“ Narthecium, which agrees most in habit with the genus before us, is distinguished from it by the want of a calyx; as well as by having a simple germen and single style; hairy filaments; and a membranous tunic, tapering at each end, to the seeds. Anthericum, including the Phalangium of Tournefort and Jussieu, differs from Tofieldia in having no calyx; a simple germen and style; and angular seeds. Helonias, to which Willdenow refers our T. palustris, confounding under that solitary species nearly the whole genus, has a simple germen and capsule, though three styles; very few seeds in each cell ”

“ The existence or absence of pubescence in the adult leaves cannot always be depended upon in distinguishing species; but the short tomentum, especially of their under surface, is of greater consequence than the spreading hairs. In the bracteæ more reliance may be placed on it, and in the different parts of the flower I have never hesitated to employ it in my specific characters. In the calyx I have even derived the greatest advantage in some difficult genera, especially Serruria, from attending to its differences in direction. ”