SIR CHARLES LINNiEUS. . 6 



other things, and these he himself planted in the 

 garden, giving his father great trouble to get rid of 

 them afterwards. The boy, however, soon began to 

 distinguish what he could bring home and plant with 

 safety, and what he could not. 



The time soon came when Charles was to attend 

 his first school, and to Wexico, a neighbouring town, 

 he was sent in 1717. His father had given him a 

 good elementary education, and of Latin the boy's 

 head had just about as much as he could well carry 

 at that time ; but, chief of all, his love for his 

 favourite pursuit went with him, and it was 

 fortunate that the rector of the school was also 

 fond of botany, and soon took an additional interest 

 in Charles when he discovered that he possessed 

 extraordinary talents in quoting the names and 

 j^eculiarities of plants and flowers which grew about 

 the school. The majority of the school-companions 

 of Linnaeus were far ahead of him in the ordinary 

 studies which they passed through, and looked upon 

 Charles in the light of a truant in his self-imposed 

 excursions after plants at the expense of Hebrew and 

 the other subjects of the school course. So negligent 

 did the boy become of these subjects, that the tutors, 

 after many admonitions, considered it necessary to 

 complain to his father, and this so disturbed the 

 senior in his mind that Charles was severely repri- 

 manded. He promised to pay all the attention which 

 he could to divinity, but had to confess to his father 

 that he possessed no inclination whatever for the 

 sacred pursuit which he so eagerly desired him to 



