242 GREENE 



many more aspects of a great character, the presentation of 

 which, one by one in a discourse, might interestedly engage 

 the attention of others besides nature students. 



Confronted by so very much that may be said, and which it 

 might seem ought to be said on this day dedicated to LinnjEus, 

 and, checked by the consideration that only a few selections 

 from out the whole mass may at this hour be taken, where shall 

 one begin ? Whither shall one proceed ? What thrilling passages 

 in a career so almost marvelous shall be left unnoted for want of 

 time, and of what few of them shall the rehearsal be attempted? 

 Or, reducing these questions down to two : Shall the man be pre- 

 sented with citation of his struggles with adverse circumstance, 

 and of the almost incredible patience, industry, zeal and resolu- 

 tion with which he conquered and rose to high renown? Or shall 

 one consider rather the zuo7-k of the great master of botanical 

 theory and taxonomic abstraction ? There will not now be time for 

 both; not even though attempted in mere outline. M}' own incli- 

 nations favor choice of the latter, especially for to-day ; yet cir- 

 cumstances indicate that such a choice would here be also inop- 

 portune. Our Washington botanists at this season of the year 

 are mostly far afield, in the service of the government. Only a fair 

 delegation of my colleagues in this science is here present ; and 

 this enlightened audience as a body I am persuaded would much 

 rather hear something more about the man of whom all the 

 world of education and of culture has heard more or less. Even 

 on my own part I have already expressed the view that the man 

 should first be known, that we may the better comprehend his 

 deeds. 



LINEAGE AND CHILDHOOD OF LINN^US. 



When Linnaeus, on the twenty-third of INIay, two hundred 

 years ago was born, I think it had long been predetermined 

 that he should be a botanist, and one of high distinction. 

 When I say predetermined, I do not use the word in any sense 

 of theological predestination, or of astrological forecast. I 

 have but the recognized principles of natural heredity in mind. 

 And, unless I err, there was more inherited by Linnaeus than 

 his biographers seem to have guessed. The}'^ all repeat it that 

 the father, the Reverend Nils Linnaeus, a Swedish country 



