May 25, 1967 



HORTICULTURE 



681 



Carl von Linne 



Thci tw(3uty-thircl of May is this year being generally 

 celebrated over the world as the two hundredth anni- 

 versary of the birth of a great man,— the Swedish Nat- 

 uralist Linne or Linnaeus. Greatness is as varied in its 

 manifestations as human interest, thought and action 

 are. It is practically synonymous with high excellence 

 in any line of either. Sometimes it is purely intellec- 

 tual; sometimes as purely mechanical. It may be as 

 real in one direction a.s in the other; but its final rank 

 is relative. 



Linnaeus was groat as an observer, greater in liis 

 ability to classify and bring into orderly arrangement 

 numberless disconnected units, and greatest in apply- 

 ing to them differential names instead of leaving them 

 dependent upon differential descriptions whenever thcy 

 were referred to. He was not the first in liis field, but 

 he so systematized it that it was easily cultivable instead 

 of presenting the obstacles of a jungle. Though his 

 system be discarded, his genera and species segregated 

 today, and his own interests in plants replaced in large 

 part by others, his method has furnished a foundation 

 of order on which all plant knowledge must rest if it is 

 to be generally useful. 



Sweden^s Great Botanist 



Today, tlic two hundredth anniversary of the birtli 

 of Linna;us is being celebrated not only by the L^ocieties 

 <^f science, the universities, and the colleges of liis na- 

 tive Jand, but by many institutions in foreign countries. 

 Linnaeus was born in the parish of Stenbrohult in the 

 province of Smoland, Sweden. From earliest child- 

 hood he showed gr.eat love for the productions of Nature 

 and before all for the flowers. In tlic year 1727 he 

 entered the ITniversity of Lund where by his great dili- 

 gence and the interest which he took in natural studies 

 he won the affection of the distinguished physician and 

 natural philosopher Stobwus. Leaving Lund in the 

 fall of 1728 he set out for TJpsala, where, a stranger 

 and unknown, with no resource? he struggled against 

 various discouragements and at one time was upon the 

 point of abandoning his studies. At the moment of his 

 greatest need, however, by chance Olaf Celcius, Doctor 

 of Theology and botanist came to his aid, introducing 

 him to his own family and boarding him in his own 

 home. His academic studies now- went on pleasantly. 

 At this period Linnasus' system for the arrangement of 

 plants, his so-called sexual -system, was devised. Before 

 he had reached his 25th year the system was elaborated 

 to embrace all known plants and the foundation of his 

 future fame was laid. In a short time his enduring 

 niiisterpicce. the Systeuia Natural, was published. It 

 was this work wliicli afterwards procured for young 

 Linuffius access to that great physician and natural 

 pliilosopher, Boerhaave, during his stay in Holland, to 



wliicli country he went for his degree of Doctor of Med- 

 icine. After dwelling three years in the land of tulips 

 lie again returned to Sweden and became a practicing 

 physician in Stockholm. At the death of 0. Eudbeck 

 he was called to the Professorship of Medicine and Bot- 

 any at Upsala. Under his direction studies of natural 

 history got attention as never before. Numbers of 

 young men crowded the lecture halls to listen to his 

 teaching and many among his disciples have their 

 names inscribed in the annals of botany; as Kalm, 

 Thunberg, Osbeck and others. 



It is pleasant to see that Linnjcus' merits were fullv 



recognized in his lifetime. He was made a nobleman 



and adopted the name Carl von Linne and adorned the 



shield in his coat of arms with a spray of his favorite 



' plant — Linnsea borealis. 



THE DEBT OV TJI.E PKACTICAL PLANTSMAN 



'J'he question has been asked, What do we owe to 

 Linnaius for the advantages which the professional, 

 practical plantsman enjo3's today? The debt of the 

 practical plantsman to Linnmus is mainly an indirect 

 one, through the iniiuenee which scientific botany has 

 lijid on t'lie jiractical study and use of plants. Linnajus 

 systematized botany, and made it easy for a large num- 

 lier of students to study plants on a wide scale. In 

 f'le impulse \\hich his system gave to taxonomic botany 

 the floras of tJip wliole world wore eagerly explored. A 

 vast number of new and interesting forms were discov- 

 ered, and such of them as were seen to be beautiful or 



