686 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
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 presented with cita- 
tion of his struggles with adverse circumstance, and of the almost 
incredible patience, industry, zeal, and resolution with which he 
conquered and rose to high renown? Or shall one consider rather 
the work 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. My own inclinations favor choice of the 
latter, especially for to-day; yet circumstances indicate that such a 
choice would here be also inopportune. 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 per- 
suaded 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 compre- 
hend his deeds. 
LINEAGE AND CHILDHOOD OF LINNZUS. 
When Linneus, on the 23d of May, 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 
Linneus than his biographers seem to have guessed. They all repeat 
it that the father, the Rev. Nils Linneus, a Swedish country clergy- 
man, was fond of plants,and had a choice garden wherein he took 
his daily pastime, and that in this garden his first-born child devel- 
oped those predilections which at length became the despair of the 
father, yet led the son eventually far up the heights of fame. All 
this is authentic, and well told by the several biographers; but there 
is more in that history which to me seems well worth telling, and 
will give light upon the derivation of Linneus’s genius as a botanist 
and upon his accomplishments as a man of learning and of letters.’ 
Let us go back to the second generation of his ancestry and glance 
at men, women, and social conditions. 
The grandfather of Linneus, on his father’s side, was a Swedish 
peasant, by name Ingemar Bengtson. His wife had two brothers 
who became university graduates, were afterwards clergymen of some 
distinction, and men of reputation in the world of learning. These 
granduncles of our Linneus interest us because of their having fig- 
