Abstract
William Curtis placed the following inscription on the title-page of the second volume of his “Flora Londinensis” -“With wise intent the hand of Nature on peculiar minds imprints a different bias, and to each decrees its province in the common toil”. How true that remark is will be evident if we compare him with some of those other strongly individual eighteenth century naturalists-Linnus, to whom, from boyhood until old age, systematy was the very breath of life, and whose greatness was proved in that hard task ; Peter Collinson, that benign figure of a man, introducing new plants into English gardens from the American colonies and elsewhere, as well as several new correspondents to Linnaus ; John Ellis, the discoverer, a man of keen eye and alert mind, who nevertheless left much of the actual work of classification to others ; Daniel Solander, who, although Linnvus's representative in England, was allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to publish so little ; the two Martyns, with their solid classical learning ; Gilbert White, who made good literature out of natural history and a beautiful Hampshire village ; and many others who in varying degrees contributed to the progress of natural history in England during the eighteenth century.
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SAVAGE, S. Curtis as Naturalist and Humanist. Nature 157, 15–16 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157015a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157015a0