1. In an obscure little Swedish village, at the beginning of the last century, was born a boy who was destined to

teach men more of the nature of plants than had been gathered by all the observers since the time when Solomon with curious eye noted the ways of the "hyssop on the wall." This was Karl Linné, the son of a poor Swedish clergyman. As Linné he was known by his boyhood comrades, but when he came to address the learned world through books he followed the custom of the old scholars and wrote his name, as he wrote his works, Latin-wise: so that it is as Linnæus that we speak of the illustrious Swede.

2. Linnæus seems to have been born a botanist, and according to his own declaration he was at once transferred from his cradle to a garden. His father had some knowledge of plants, and his uncle, who was his first teacher, had still more. In his diary he records that when he was four years old he went to a garden-party, with his father, and heard the guests discussing the names and properties of plants. He listened carefully to all he heard, and "from that time never ceased harassing his father about the name, quality, and nature of every plant he met with," so that his parent was sometimes quite put out of humor by his constant questioning.

3. The lad was taught in a small grammar-school, where he showed so little taste for books that his father would have apprenticed him to a shoemaker if a physician named Rothmann, who saw the boy's love of natural history, had not taken him into his own house and taught him botany and physiology. At one-and-twenty we find him, with an allowance of eight pounds a year from his father, a struggling student at the University of Upsala, putting folded paper into the soles of his old shoes to keep out the damp and cold, and trusting to chance for a meal. Nevertheless, he diligently persevered in attendance upon the

courses of lectures, the more diligently perhaps because of his poverty.

4. In 1736, after meeting with many kind friends in his straitened circumstances, and making a long botanical journey to Lapland, he went to Holland, where he formed the acquaintance of a rich banker named Cliffort, who was also a great botanist. This was the turning-point of Linnæus's life. Mr. Cliffort invited him to live with him, treated him like a son, and allowed him to make free use of his magnificent horticultural garden. He also sent him to England to procure rare plants, and gave him a liberal income. This continued for some time till Linnæus's health began to fail, and he found besides that he had learnt all he could in this place, so he resolved to leave his kind friend and pursue his travels.

5. At last he settled down as professor of medicine and natural history at Upsala, where he founded a splendid botanical garden, which served as a model for many such gardens in other countries. His struggles with poverty were now over forever, and his fame as a botanist became world-wide. He used to go out in the summer days with more than two hundred pupils to gather plants in the surrounding country, and many celebrated people came to Stockholm to attend Linnæus's "excursions." Then as his pupils spread over the world he employed them to collect specimens of plants from distant countries, and he himself worked incessantly to classify them into one great system.

6. In 1774, while lecturing on botany, he was seized with apoplexy, and two years later a second attack paralyzed him and impaired his faculties; so that the remaining months of his life were passed in mental darkness, which the sight of flowers and opening buds and other familiar

and beloved objects could never wholly dispel. His death, in 1778, was the signal for a general mourning in Upsala; a medal was struck and a monument erected to his memory, and the King of Sweden pronounced a eulogy on him in a speech from the throne.

7. In stature Linnæus was diminutive, with a large head and bright, piercing eyes. It is said that his temper was quick, but he was easily appeased, and he had pleasant relations with his scientific friends and associates. His was indeed a noble life. Truth-loving and enthusiastic, he had toiled, even when poor, for science and not for wealth, and when he became famous and rich he helped his pupils, and lived simply and frugally till his death.

8. After the death of Linnæus his mother and sisters sold his collection of plants to an Englishman named Dr. Smith. The King of Sweden was at this time away from Stockholm, but as soon as he returned and learned that such a valuable national treasure was on its way to England he sent a man-of-war to try and bring it back. A very amusing chase then took place. Dr. Smith did not mean to lose his prize if he could help it; so he set full sail, and by good seamanship reached London without being overtaken. Thus the Linnæan collection was transported to England, where it still is.

9. Some persons suppose Linnæus to have been the founder or father of botany. But to think in this way about any man is to think very superficially. No science is ever the creation of any one man or of any one age, but of many men through many ages. "cometh from afar," and is a plant that has its roots deep in antiquity. Nevertheless, Linnæus did great things for the science he loved. And the first and greatest thing of

Every science

all was that he gave a second or specific name to every plant.

10. Before the time of Linnæus, botanists had given but one name to a set of plants; calling all roses, for example, by the name rosa, and then adding a description to show which particular kind of rose was meant. Thus, for the dog-rose they were obliged to say "common rose of the woods with a flesh-colored sweet-scented flower." 1 This was of course extremely inconvenient. It was as if all the children in a family were called only by their father's name, and we were obliged to describe each particular child every time we mentioned him; as "Smith with the dark hair," or "Smith with the long nose and short fingers," etc. Linnæus was the first to give a second or specific name to each particular kind of plant, describing the plant at the same time so accurately that any one who found it could decide at once to what species it belonged. To accomplish this he classified all plants, chiefly according to the number and arrangement of their stamens and pistils (or those parts which produce the seeds), and then he subdivided them by the character and position of their leaves and other parts.

11. In describing the geranium, for example, he mentions first the sepals, or little green leaves under the flower; he says they are five, and very pointed; then the petals, or flower-leaves, are five also, growing on the sepals and heart-shaped; the stamens are ten in number, and grow separate; the little vessels on the top of the stamens, which are called anthers, and hold the yellow dust, are oblong; the pistil, or seed-vessel, is formed of

1 rosa, sylvestris vulgaris, flore odorato incarnato.