104 CAPRIFOLIACE^— WOODBINE TRIBE 



unnoticed, rendered it a meet emblem of his own early life. In all subsequent 

 time the flower has had and will ever possess an interest to the botanist, for 

 Carl Linne was a great reformer of Natural History, and the father of 

 several of the modern physical sciences. Dr. E. D. Clarke found the Linnsea 

 very common in almost all the large Northern fir-forests, but he remarks that 

 it might be easily overlooked, because it only grows in any abundance in the 

 thickest parts of the woods, where its delicate twin-blossoms are almost 

 hidden among the moss, through which its slender stems run along to the 

 length of nine or ten feet. The flowers are in West Bothnia gathered for 

 making some remedy for cold and rheumatism ; and the people of Tronyen 

 make an infusion of the plant, Avhich they use for various disorders. Linnseus 

 considered that it possessed medicinal properties ; the odour of the blossom 

 is much like that of our meadow-sweet (Sjnrcea tdmdria), and Dr. Clarke 

 found it so powerful during night-time as to enable him to discover the plant 

 at a considerable distance. He remarks, " There may be other varieties of 

 it than those which we noticed, but the representations given of it by Linnjeus 

 in his ' Flora Suecica ' are not correct. No person from these representations 

 would be able to comprehend why it received the appellation of Nummu- 

 laria, before Gronovius, in honour of Linnaeus, changed its generic name, its 

 leaves being all there represented as ovate and serrated, whereas, some of 

 them, sometimes all, are perfectly orbicular, like little pieces of money." 

 The plant is now, in all European countries where it grows, known by the 

 name of Linnaea ; but the Norwegians call it also Nor isle, Nordtte, and Nariosle 

 grass ; the Danes commonly term it Marislegrdes ; and the Swedish peasants 

 call it Vindgms. The latter people, however, prize it for its association 

 with their great botanist. Mr. E. P. Thompson remarks : " To have pro- 

 duced one man whose reputation has become the property of the Universe is 

 to this day their boast and pride ; and as if to prove what the force of the 

 example of one great mind can effect, the love of Botany among the Swedes 

 is a ruling passion. The Linncea boredlis, a little creeping plant of delicious 

 fragrance, growing wild in the woods, and named from Linnseus, and with 

 which they have crowned his bust, is perfectly venerated. In one of my 

 rambles in the country some schoolboys, who were following the same path, 

 came running to me, stranger as I was, exclaiming, ' See, sir, I have found 

 some of the Linncea boredlis.' " 



Nor is this interesting plant confined to Europe. Sir Charles Lyell, in 

 one of his excursions to see the falls of the i-iver Amsonosue, was shown by a 

 botanist who accompanied him several places in which the Linnaja grew, and 

 it was at that time in fruit. This traveller had seen it in July, 1842, in 

 flower in Nova Scotia, but was not prepared to find it extending so much 

 farther southward, having first known it as a characteristic of Norway and of 

 great Alpine heights in Europe. But he was still more surprised when he 

 was assured by his friend that it descends even into the wooded plains of 

 New Hampshire, under favour of a long winter and summer fogs, near the 

 sea. He adds. ' ' What is most singular, between Manchester and Cape Anne, 

 in lat. 42° 30' N., it inhabits the same swamp with Magnolia glauca. The 

 Arctic Linnsea trailing along the ground, and protected by a magnolia, 

 affords a common example of two plants of genera characteristic of very 



