XI 



LINNAEUS 



I 707- 1778 



Carl von Linne [Linnacus\ was horn May ij, -^/O/, at Rashult in 

 Smaland, Sweden. At the age of four he showed a precocious in- 

 terest in plants, an interest which seriously interfered with his 

 studies when he went to school. When his father was about to re- 

 move him, a friend urged that the boy be fitted for the profession of 

 medicine. Linnaeus entered the university at Lund in ijsj, hut in 

 the following year transferred to Upsala. In 1732, at the expense 

 of the Academy of Sciences, he explored Lapland. Later he made 

 pilgrimages to many of the most eminent professors of Europe, re- 

 turning to Stockholm in 1738. After his marriage, in 1739, he was 

 appointed professor at Upsala, where he continued his work in botany 

 and established it on a rational basis. He died January 10, 1778, 

 noted as one of the foremost botanists of his time, having discovered 

 sex in plants and given his name to a famous botanical system of 

 classification. 



THE SEX OF PLANTS * 



The organs common in general to all plants are: ist. The root, 

 with its capillary vessels, extracting nourishment from the ground. 

 2nd. The leaves, which may be called the limbs, and which, like the 

 feet and wings of animals, are organs of motion ; for being themselves 

 shaken by the external air, they shake and exercise the plant. 3rd. 

 The trunk, containing the medullary substance, which is nourished by 

 the bark, and for the most part multiplied into several compound 

 plants. 4th. The fructification, which is the true body of the plant, 

 set at liberty by a metamorphosis, and consists only of the organs 



* From the Publications of the Linnacan Society. 



76 



