The flowers' leaves serve as a bridal bed, which the Creator has so gloriously arranged, adorned with such noble bed curtains, and perfumed with so many soft scents that the bridegroom with his bride might there celebrate their nuptials with so much the greater solemnity. When the bed has thus been made ready, then is the time for the bridegroom to embrace his beloved bride and surrender himself to her.

He named one genus of plants Clitoria. Not surprisingly, many people thought him strange. But his system of classification was irresistible. Before Linnaeus, plants were given names that were expansively descriptive. The common ground cherry was called Physalis amno ramosissime ramis angulosis glabris foliis dentoserratis. Linnaeus lopped it back to Physalis angulata, which name it still uses. The plant world was equally disordered by inconsistencies of naming. A botanist could not be sure ifKosa sylvestris alba cum rubore, folio glabro was the same plant that others called Rosa sylvestris inodora seu canina. Linnaeus solved the puzzlement by calling it simply Rosa canina. To make these excisions useful and agreeable to all required much more than simply being decisive. It required an instinct — a genius, in fact — for spotting the salient qualities of a species.