BICENTENARY OF LINNMUS 33 



SmS-land, Sweden, a farmer named Ingemar Svenson. He had three 

 children, two sons and one daughter, the grandmother of Linnaeus. On 

 the Jonsboda farm stood a very large linden-tree, so old and with so many 

 traditions that it was regarded by the people as a holy tree. Any damage 

 done to this tree, it was claimed, would surely bring misfortune upon the 

 head of the perpetrator. When the two sons began to study for the ministry, 

 it was natural that they should think of this tree in selecting a family name. 

 They called themselves Tiliander; Tilia is the Latin for the linden or bass- 

 wood, and andros the Greek for man. It may not be amiss to state that at 

 that time the common people of Sweden did not have any family names, 

 and this is true to a certain extent even to-day. A man was known by his 

 given name, the given name of his father with the word son appended, and 

 the place vvhere he lived. The farmer mentioned above was known as 

 Ingemar Svenson from Jonsboda. His father's name was Sven Carlson, 

 and that of his grandfather, Carl Johnson. The names of his two sons 

 would have been Carl and Sven Ingemarson, had they remained in the 

 peasant class, instead of Carl and Sven Tiliander. 



The daughter married a farmer, Ingemar Bengtson ; and her son's name 

 was Nils Ingemarson, until he entered the "gymnasium." He also was 

 born in Jonsboda, and, when selecting a name, he also naturally turned to 

 the same old linden-tree as his maternal uncles had done. He called him- 

 self Linnaeus. It is remarkable that two of his father's maternal grand- 

 uncles also bore anotlicr Latin form of the same name, viz., Lindelius. 

 Some claim that even this name was derived from the same old linden-tree, 

 but this is scarcelv in accordance with the facts. More likelv it traces its 

 origin from the Linden Farm in Dannas Parish, where their ancestors lived. 



But what has this genealogy to do with Linnaeus's relation to North 

 American botany? Perhaps nothing directly, but indirectly a great deal; 

 for the circumstances and surroundings under which a man is born and 

 reared to a certain extent make the man. In his younger days, Sven 

 Tiliander was the house-chaplain of Field-Marshal and Admiral- Viscount 

 Henrik Horn, who was for many years Governor of Bremen and Verden, 

 two cities with territory in Germany acquired by Sweden through the 

 Thirty-years War. During his stay in Germany, Tiliander learned to know 

 and love botany and horticulture, and established around Viscount Horn's 

 residence in Bremen a garden which was remarkable for that period. When 

 both returned to Sweden, Tiliander brought with him the choicest plants 

 from this garden and planted them around the parsonage of Pjetteryd 

 Parish, of which he had been appointed rector. Here at Pjetteryd, Nils 

 Linnaeus spent most of his youth, studying in company with his uncle's 

 sons. Later, both as curate at RSshult and as rector at Stenbrohult, he 



