HOW SNAKES CAPTUUK THEIR PREY. 241 



compliments. After successive attacks of apoplexy his mind became 

 impaired and his body gradually sinking, he died on the 11th of Janu- 

 ary, 1778, greatly and universally lamented. 



Besides other works Linnaeus published Flora Suecica, Fauna Sue- 

 cica, Materia Medica, Genera Morborum, Philosophica Botanica. In 

 1753, he published his Species Plantarum, every plant arranged on his 

 sexual system. This work Haller calls "maximum opus et sternum." 

 The impulse which was given to the study of botany, and it is mainly 

 referable to Linnaeus, may be inferred from the fact that whilst his own 

 herbal which he said contained only eight thousand plants was " vvithout 

 contradiction the greatest that ever was seen," we now have collections 

 containing from thirty to forty thousand species, and as many as eight 

 thousand were received in one year, 



Linnaeus was of diminutive stature, his look keen and piercing but 

 his ear was unmusical. Nature had highly endowed his mind. His im- 

 agination was brilliant, his memory retentive, and his industry untiring. 

 He had a perfect command of the Latin language in which he wrote. 

 His style was concise though often illuminated by lively sallies of ima- 

 gination. In the midst of all his prosperity he never forgot his Maker, 

 and was ever ready to own the hand which had showered such bless- 

 ings upon him. In a memoir which he drew up, of the most remarka- 

 ble incidents of his life, he concludes with these words : "The Lord was 

 with thee wherever thou didst go." 



HOW SNAKES CAPTURE THEIR PREY. 



I was riding along the other day with my little son in a carriage, 

 when, just as we were descending a sharp hill, our attention was arrest- 

 ed by a considerable rustling in the dry brush, at one side of the road a 

 considerable distance below us. I at first thought that it was a squirrel 

 amusing himself in that way, but was soon surprised to see a large frog 

 coming up the hill with astofiishing speed and leaping through the air 

 to a great distance. This one was soon followed by another, and I be- 

 gan to wonder what could have induced them to leave the stream a 

 short distance below and make sucli an excursion into the upper regions. 

 But I was soon relieved upon this point, for the second frog was rapidly 

 followed by a large black-snake, some two or three feet long, his eyes 

 glistening and every muscle strained, evidently intent upon capturing the 

 poor animal before him. The interposition of my carriage, caused the 

 frog to turn across the hill, at right angles to his former course. But 

 the wary eye of the snake was upon him, and he too turned in the same 

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