86 M. Fee's Life ofLinnam. 



Charles Linnaeus was born at Stenbrohult on the 1st of May 

 1707. His father was a country clergyman of a mild disposi- 

 tion and an equal temper. His mother, he said, had a great 

 deal of wit, a sound judgment, and a very lively manner ; he is 

 an instance which tends to strengthen those who maintain the 

 opinion that all distinguished men have had witty mothers, and 

 who concluded from thence that the influence of early years on 

 the intellectual development of children is considerable. Young 

 Charles, however, having contracted a taste for botany, from look- 

 ing at the flowers in his father's little garden, his mother, not- 

 withstanding her intelligence, conceived such a dislike to the di- 

 rection which his studies took, that she absolutely prohibited his 

 brother Samuel from going among the flowers. The success of 

 Charles in his college studies did not correspond with the ex- 

 pectations which his intelligence had predicated. Throughout 

 his life he was by no means ready in the acquisition of languages, 

 which were too exclusively made the test of success in the col- 

 leges, and he went to the University of Lund with the reputa- 

 tion of a very indifferent scholar. There he resolved to study 

 medicine, and his poverty exposed him to great difficulties: 

 Stobaeus the naturalist received him into his house, which ena- 

 bled him to see his little museum and strengthen his taste for 

 natural history. He afterwards went to Upsal, where Olaus 

 Celsus, having discovered his talents and his indigence, took 

 him to live with him, that he might assist him in his work on 

 •biblical botany, and gave him access to a valuable library. By 

 teaching a few students he procured a little money, and aspired 

 to the place of Rosen, at that time professor extraordinary. As 

 a guide in his study of plants he took Tournefort, whom he 

 knew, especially by the abridgment published by Johrenius, 

 under the title of Hodegus Botanicus, and shortly afterwards 

 the treatise of Vaillant on the sexes of the plants opened his 

 eyes to a new view. Rudbeck encouraged him to follow it, and 

 it was at this period, when he was t\yenty-two years of age, that 

 he commenced writing the Bihliotheca Botanica, the Classes 

 Plantarum^ and even the Genera Plantarum. 



Incited by the advice of Rudbeck, he at that time undertook 

 a journey to Lapland, a painful one, either owing to the climate 

 and the rugged nature of the country, or because the scantiness 



