BICENTENARY OF LINNMVS 11 



museum and botanic garden. Later he was sent by him to England to 

 secure rare plants for his garden, w ith a letter of introduction from the great 

 Boerhaave to Sir Hans Sloane. He thus came in contact with the botanists 

 of London, where, however, his reception was not always cordial. 



On his return to Holland he was offered the position of government 

 physician to the Dutch colony in Surinam, which he prudently declined, 

 and became an assistant to his friend Van Royen at the botanic garden in 

 Leyden. After a brief visit to Paris he returned to Stockholm in September, 

 1738, where he determined to settle as a physician. Notwithstanding his 

 fame abroad and his skill as a botanist, the pecuniary returns from his 

 profession were at first small, but they gradually increased; and, obtaining 

 some government patronage, his marriage to Miss Morseus was celebrated 

 on June 26, 1739. 



He remained only three years in Stockholm, during which period he 

 helped to found the Royal Academy of Sciences of that city, and served as 

 its first president. In 1741, under an order from the government, he made 

 a journey through Oland and Gothland. In the same year he was called 

 to the chair of botany at the University of Upsala, a position to which he 

 had long aspired, and which he filled for thirty years, when impaired health 

 compelled him to resign his official duties and to discontinue his literary 

 labors. The University of Upsala, through the fame of Linnseus, became 

 widely renowned as a seat of learning, and attracted students from various 

 parts of Europe. During these years of almost uninterrupted activity, most 

 of Linnseus's numerous botanical and other works were published, the 

 material for which reached him in ever-increasing abundance, not only from 

 distant parts of Europe, but from Siberia, China, India, Egj'pt, South Africa 

 and North and South America. 



Academic honors were showered upon him by all the learned societies of 

 Europe; a gold medal w^as struck in his honor by the nobles of Sweden; 

 and in 1757 he was created by King Frederic a Knight of the Polar Star, and 

 admitted to hereditary nobility. Foreign courts made overtures for his 

 presence, and his owm country neglected no opportunity to do him honor. 

 His death in 1778, after six years of invalidism resulting from an attack of 

 apoplexy, was recognized as a national calamity; the University of Upsala 

 went into mourning, and the King ordered a medal to be struck in his 

 memory. 



Although cramped by poverty during the earlier part of his career, pros- 

 perity did not long withhold her smile. Not only were the nobles of his 

 country his patrons, but he was an especial favorite of both King Frederic 

 and his queen. Through various emoluments showered upon him, he was 

 able, later in life, to purchase a large estate and to construct for himself a 



