4 * MEMOIR OF LINNiEUS. 



enjoyed nearly forty years, dischaiging his duties with piety and 

 moderation, and employing the greater part of his leisure in the 

 cultivation of his garden. 



Carl Linnaeus, eldest son, was born 24th of May, 1707, at 

 Rashult, in the province of Smaland, while his father was still a 

 clergyman. With an inheritance of his father's love for plants 

 and their cultivation, he is thus recorded by one of his pupils : — 

 " From the very time that he first left his cradle, he almost lived in 

 his father's garden, which was planted with some of the rarer 

 shrubs and flowers ;' and thus were kindled, before he was well 

 out of his mother's arms, those sparks which shone so vividly all 

 his life time, and lastly burst into such a flame." 



The elder Linnaeus wished and intended that his first-born 

 should succeed him in the office of pastor, and he endeavored to 

 regulate the clerical education of his son, as far as his means 

 would permit. At the age of seven, Linnaeus was placed under 

 the private charge of John Tiliander, and two years afterwards 

 was entered to the school of Wexio ; but in both these places, the 

 discipline is said to have been severe, and not well fitted for the 

 advancement of a young man of his mild temper, and he was 

 soon after placed under another private tutor, who possessed a 

 more conciliating disposition. His distaste for ordinary studies 

 could not be so easily overcome, and it was not till three years 

 after that he received promotion to a higher form in the school, 

 called the circle. In this rank he was allowed more leisure, which 

 was invariably devoted to his favorite pursuits, and chiefly his 

 earliest, that of plants, and at this time began to show a more de- 

 cided taste for botany, by forming a small library of such books 

 as he could procure upon this science ; and from his studious pe- 

 rusal of them, acquired the college name of the " Little Botanist." 

 Nearly two years after, the father came to Wexio, to ascertain 

 the progress of his son's studies ; and the disappointment of the 

 sanguine hopes of a parent may be conceived, when the recom- 



