Linnean Society

“ After the publication of the paper by the Linnean Society he at once set to work to write his 'Abstract,' the name under which he constantly refers at this time to the 'Origin of Species.' The first idea was that it should be published in a series of numbers of the 'Linnean Journal,' and it was not till about the end of 1858 that it became evident that it must be published as a separate work. In March 1809 he wrote: 'I can see daylight through my work ... and I hope in a month or six weeks to have proof-sheets. I am weary of my work. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Those who are competent to devote themselves to this branch of scientific inquiry, will wisely avoid all loss of time about matters of opinion, concerning which, men more learned and experienced than themselves have differed, but which are in general sufficiently settled for all practical uses, though they might be debated upon for ever, without any incontrovertible conclusion. Such are many of the genera in dispute between Linnæus and other authors; in alluding to which, I by no means wish to deter young botanists from the study of genera, one of the most instructive that they can pursue. ”

“ He became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1852, and was a vice-president of the Anthropological Society and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In botany he made a special study of Camellia and Thea, of which he published a synopsis in the Linnean ‘Transactions’ (vol. xxii.) ”

“ Described by Professor Vines, in presidential address to the Linnean Society for 1902, as 'a laborious student and a conscientious teacher of botany,' Bennett was a contributor to the 'Journal of Botany,' 'The Popular Science Review,' the 'Reports' of the British Association, and other scientific periodicals. ”

“ 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 origin such as is here advocated will also agree with the peculiar character of the modifications of form and structure which obtain in organized beings—the many lines of divergence from a central type, the increasing efficiency and power of a particular organ through a succession of allied species, and the remarkable persistence of unimportant parts such as colour, texture of plumage and hair, form of horns or crests, through a series of species differing considerably in more essential characters. ”

“ We can only retain the genus as an artificial one, along with many other such, till the science be arrived at a greater degree of perfection; keeping, the mean time, naturaI orders in view as the grand object of our systematic inquiries, and cherishing every truly natural genus as a fixed point, on which we may found the principles of future discoveries. ”

“ Being regular and orderly in his habits, he was able, though in partnership with his father, to spare time for the study of science, for which he had an ardent love. He collected British plants, especially mosses, and also shells and fossil plants. In 1836 he joined the Edinburgh Botanical Society, and in 1841 the Glasgow Philosophical Society. In 1855 he became a fellow of the Linnean Society. He took an active part in the promotion of various benevolent institutions, and in 1855 acted as local secretary in connection with the Glasgow meeting of the British Association. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Darwin, he gave us permission to make what use we thought proper of his memoir, &c.; and in adopting our present course, of presenting it to the Linnean Society, we have explained to him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to priority of himself and his friend, but the interests of science generally; for we feel it to be desirable that views founded on a wide deduction from facts, and matured by years of reflection, should constitute at once a goal from which others may start, and that, while the scientific world is waiting for the appearance of Mr. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But it is the object of the present paper to show that this assumption is altogether false, that there is a general principle in nature which will cause many varieties to survive the parent species, and to give rise to successive variations departing further and further from the original type, and which also produces, in domesticated animals, the tendency of varieties to return to the parent form.
The life of wild animals is a struggle for existence. ”

“ At length however it becomes necessary that this obscure genus should assume as regular a form as possible in the Flora Britannica; where, as in every other instance, my object is to publish nothing that I have not ascertained myself, at least as far as the imperfection of all human knowledge and judgment will permit. ”

“ The natural order of Proteæ, or, as it is less exceptionally called, Proteaceæ, was first established in the Genera Plantarum of the celebrated Jussieu; and the description there prefixed to it will, with a few alterations, still apply to the order, now that it has received so many additions, not only in species, but in very distinct genera, several of which were first published by
Dr. ”

“ These gentlemen having, independently and unknown to one another, conceived the same very ingenious theory to account for the appearance and perpetuation of varieties and of specific forms on our planet, may both fairly claim the merit of being original thinkers in this important line of inquiry ”

“ Natural history has already to boast of an Aristotle, a Ray, a Reaumur, a Linnæus, a Haller, a Hunter, and a Cuvier. What other science can rank abler men among its cultivators? And, as is remarked by one of the most eminent naturalists that this country has produced, the late president of the Linnæan Society, "How delightful and how consolatory it is, among the disappointments and anxieties of life, to observe science, like virtue, retaining its relish to the last!" ”

“ If one species does so, some others requiring the same kind of food must diminish in proportion. The numbers that die annually must be immense; and as the individual existence of each animal depends upon itself, those that die must be the weakest—the very young, the aged, and the diseased,—while those that prolong their existence can only be the most perfect in health and vigour—those who are best able to obtain food regularly, and avoid their numerous enemies. ”

“ Which is the variety and which the original species, there is generally no means of determining, except in those rare cases in which the one race has been known to produce an offspring unlike itself and resembling the other. ”

“ We have only therefore to suppose that the species of the western passed over to the eastern islands at so remote a period as on one side or the other to have become extinct, and to have been replaced by an allied form, and we shall have produced exactly the state of things now existing. Such extinction and such replacement we know has been continually going on. ”

“ Minerals are unorganized; plants are organized and live; and animals are organized, live, feel, and move spontaneously: and in the animal kingdom he had recognized—six classes mammals, birds, amphibians (including reptiles) , fishes, insects, and worms. His work greatly reformed natural history in more ways than one.
Linnæus was the recipient of most of the honours awarded to men of science, and was a botanist of world-wide renown. ”

“ We really require no speculative hypothesis, no new theory, to explain these phenomena; they are the logical results of well-known laws of nature. The regular and unceasing extinction of species, and their replacement by allied forms, is now no hypothesis, but an established fact; and it necessarily produces such peculiar faunæ and floræ in all but recently formed or newly disrupted islands, subject of course to more or less modification according to the facilities for the transmission of fresh species from adjacent continents. ”

“ Now, let some alteration of physical conditions occur in the district—a long period of drought, a destruction of vegetation by locusts, the irruption of some new carnivorous animal seeking "pastures new"—any change in fact tending to render existence more difficult to the species in question, and tasking its utmost powers to avoid complete extermination; it is evident that, of all the individuals composing the species, those forming the least numerous and most feebly organized variety would suffer first, and, were the pressure severe, must soon become extinct. ”

“ For simplicity attracts the student, whom a more complex (even if more natural) method would repel; and for the collection of an adequate mass of materials wherewith, eventually, to build up a more symmetrical and widely-based structure, a multitude of comparatively unskilled labourers is more efficacious than a small knot of the most erudite architects. ”

“ The domestic animal, on the other hand, has food provided for it, is sheltered, and often confined, to guard it against the vicissitudes of the seasons, is carefully secured from the attacks of its natural enemies, and seldom even rears its young without human assistance. ”

“ I have found it hard constantly to bear in mind that the increase of every single species is checked during some part of its life, or during some shortly recurrent generation. Only a few of those annually born can live to propagate their kind. ”

“ In the majority of cases it is most difficult to imagine where the checks fall—though generally, no doubt, on the seeds, eggs, and young; but when we remember how impossible, even in mankind (so much better known than any other animal) , it is to infer from repeated casual observations what the average duration of life is, or to discover the different percentage of deaths to births in different countries, we ought to feel no surprise at our being unable to discover where the check falls in any animal or plant. ”