16 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



After this he spent some time at Leyden, then the 

 seat of the leading fJutch university, where he made 

 friends with several naturalists. One of these 

 strongly advised him to publish the result of his 

 inquiries and investigations. Acting upon this advice, 

 he published a prospectus occupying fourteen folio 

 pages, giving his Systema Naturce, which has proved 

 the foundation of his fame. A celebrated Dr. Boer- 

 haave took notice of him, and invited him to his 

 villa some distance from Leyden, where he had a 

 botanical garden. The doctor had among his trees 

 one bearing the name of Crategus Aria, which was 

 looked upon as a rarity. Linnaeus was asked if he 

 had seen the tree before, and he replied that he had, 

 and that he had also read the description of it in a 

 book by Yaillant. The eminent medical man doubted 

 this, and went so far as to say that his visitor must 

 be greatly mistaken ; and to prove himself in the right, 

 went to his library and brought back the book and 

 referred, when to his great astonishment he found that 

 Linnaeus was right, and that he had most accurately 

 rendered the description as given by Yaillant. 



On Linnaeus leaving Leyden for Amsterdam, Dr. 

 Boerhaave gave him a letter of introduction to a 

 pupil of his who was professor of botany in the 

 capital of Holland. This Professor Burmann was 

 engaged at the time of his visit in completing a 

 description of the plants of the island of Ceylon. In 

 the course of conversation Burmann showed him a 

 shrub which he said was a great rarity. Linnaeus 

 examined it, and pronounced it a species of bay. 



