LINNHZAN ADDRESS—GREENE. 697 
plants that were in bloom. An ecclesiastic of distinguished bearing, 
In passing through the garden, paused before him, asked him what 
he was describing, if he knew plants, was a student of botany, from 
what part of the country he had come, and how long he had been 
at the university, tested his knowledge of botany by asking him the 
names of all the plants that were in sight. This ecclesiastic was no 
less noted a personage than Olaus Celsius, a man then some 60 years 
of age, eminent as a theologian, an orientalist, and more than an ama- 
teur in the natural sciences; even now beginning to be a botanist; for 
some two years before the date of his chance meeting with the student 
Linneus, he had been assigned by a council of Lutheran clergymen the 
task of writing a treatise on the plants mentioned in the Bible. His 
classic Hierobotanon was the result of his attempt to fulfill that com- 
mission; and, by the way, none will ever know how largely he may 
have been indebted to the young student Linneus in the preparation 
of that work. The examination that he had given the youth, there 
in the botanic garden, had filled him with wondering admiration. 
Celsius saw that he needed him; saw also in his worn clothing and 
almost bare feet the evidence of a worthy student’s grinding poverty. 
Within a few days Linneus was comfortably housed with Professor 
Celsius, having been commanded to bring with him that herbarium 
of 600 Swedish plants which he said had accumulated with the last 
three years. 
Celsius was to write a botany of Palestine by and by, and was 
now devoting as much time as he might to the botany that was at 
hand, that of his own country; and he had augmented his great 
scholar’s library by the acquisition of all the standard and many rare 
books of botany. Linnzus was again in the enjoyment of great good 
fortune. Yet all this was not for long. Celsius’s very zeal and 
benevolence on his behalf brought the young man into trouble. By 
his great influence he procured for Linneus an examination, which 
was followed by a license to lecture publicly in the botanic garden. 
The candidate had not been three years in residence, and Professor 
Roberg expressed it as his opinion that the precedent was a dangerous 
one to have established. The lectures were begun, and Linnzus had 
a throng of students of the best class, among them sons of some of the 
university professors, and he was now able to clothe himself com- 
fortably. This all happened at a time when a promising instructor, 
Nils Rosén, had lately gone abroad on a two years’ leave to obtain the 
doctorate in medicine. A less competent young man had been dele- 
gated to take Rosén’s work during his absence. Linneus, by his supe- 
rior learning and personal magnetism, appears quite innocently to 
have drawn away his students. There would be trouble in store for 
Linneus whensoever Rosén should return. It is a sad truth that, in 
science as elsewhere in this poor, foolish world the mediocre man in 
