Tournefort’s important work was the forming a great amount of good knowledge about the species of plants, and the arranging them in a systematic order. But, as has been mentioned, he was a founder of the science of the distribution of plants. He appears to have laboured independently of Ray, his English fellow-botanist, whose method was the best of the two. There are twenty-two classes in Tournefort’s method, chiefly arranged, as has been stated, by the form of the corolla, comparatively an unimportant structure. He distinguishes herbs and under-shrubs on the one hand, from trees and shrubs on the other. His system of classification was much used on the Continent, until it was found to be less easy of application than that of Linnæus. The life of Ray, by Dr. Derham and Sir J. E. Smith, is to be found in the “Memorials of John Ray,” in the publications of the Ray Society, 1846. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER III. THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS. The science of plants begins to mature, to be reformed, and to be made more exact. Carl Linnæus was born in the month of May, 1707, at Rashult, in the parish of Stenbrohult, in Smaland, a province in the South of Sweden. His father, Nils Linnæus, was assistant minister of the parish, and became, in process of time, its pastor or rector, having married the daughter of his predecessor.[1] Our Carl was the firstborn child of this marriage. The family of Linnæus had been peasants, and a remarkably lofty linden tree, growing near their native place, is reputed to have given origin to the names of Lindelius, or Tiliander (linden tree man). This origin of surnames taken from natural objects is not uncommon in Sweden.