388 HISTOKY OF BOTANY. 



science which no one would select as the peculiar field of Linnaeus'* 

 glory ; and the formation of a system of arrangement on the basis of 

 this doctrine, though attended with many advantages, was not an 

 improvement of any higher order than those introduced by Ray and 

 Tournefort. But as a Reformer of the state of Natural History in his 

 time, Linnaeus was admirable for his skill, and unparalleled in his 

 success. And we have already seen, in the instance of the reform of 

 mineralogy, as attempted by Mohs and Berzelius, that men of great 

 talents and knowledge may fail in such an undertaking. 



It is, however, only by means of the knowledge which he displays, 

 and of the beauty and convenience of the improvements which he 

 proposes, that any one can acquire such an influence as to procure his 

 suggestions to be adopted. And even if original circumstances of 

 birth or position could invest any one with peculiar prerogatives and 

 powers in the republic of science, Karl Linne began his career with no 

 such advantages. His father was a poor curate in Smaland, a province 

 of Sweden ; his boyhood was spent in poverty and privation ; it was 

 with great difficulty that, at the age of twenty-one, he contrived to 

 subsist at the University of Upsal, whither a strong passion for natural 

 history had urged him. Here, however, he was so far fortunate, that 

 Olaus Rudbeck, the professor of botany, committed to him the care of 

 the Botanic Garden. 1 The perusal of the works of Vaillant and 

 Patrick Blair suggested to him the idea of an arrangement of plants, 

 formed upon the sexual organs, the stamens and pistils ; and of such 

 an arrangement he published a sketch in 1731, at the age of twenty- 

 four. 



But we must go forwards a few years in his life, to come to the 

 period to which his most important works belong. University and 

 family quarrels induced him to travel ; and, after various changes of 

 scene, he was settled in Holland, as the curator of the splendid botani- 

 cal garden of George Clifford, an opulent banker. Here it was 8 that 

 he laid the foundation of his future greatness. In the two years of 

 his residence at Harlecamp, he published nine works. The first, the 

 Systema Naturce, which contained a comprehensive sketch of the 

 whole domain of Natural History, excited general astonishment, by 

 the acuteness of the observations, the happy talent of combination, and 

 the clearness of the systematic views. Such a work could not fail to 

 procure considerable respect for its author. His If or t us Cliffortiana 



1 Sprengel, ii. 232. " Ibid. 234. 



