;J0 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



those men who are so much like them, asked the name 

 of some herb or garden flower, than to throw np, 

 by way of answer, a long train of Latin words, which 

 sounded like a conjuration of hobgoblins." 



Had Linneeus done nothing else but this, it would 

 indeed be a noble monument to his memory. The 

 applying of simple names by him promoted and 

 facilitated the study of botany. It got rid of the 

 deterring appearance of an arduous science. Par- 

 ticularly did it popularise botanical studies among the 

 fair sex, and Linn&eus had no greater admirers than 

 the Queen of Sweden and her family and other ladies 

 immediately connected with the court. Not only was 

 Linnaeus on terms of intimacy with the Swedish royal 

 court, but in 1773 he received an offer from the then 

 Spanish king to be chief botanist in the Madrid 

 gardens at a high salary, accompanied by an offer 

 to at once create him a nobleman. This flattering 

 proposal he declined for himself, but obtained it for 

 one of his own pupils. 



All through the studies of Linnaeus he kept strictly 

 in view the curative properties of plants, as well as 

 the furtherance of botanical science. His work, the 

 " Materia Medica," which was for years the best book 

 on medicine, shows how much of a doctor as well 

 as a botanist he was. He laboured long and earnestly 

 to reduce diseases to definite and certain species with 

 as much accuracy as a botanist he had done with regard 

 to the description of plants. 



Honours began freely to fall upon him. The 

 different academies of Europe vied with each other 



