LINNAEUS, CARL. 



LISTON, WILLIAM. 



WO 



b* was raiaad to the nobility, ami took the till* of Von Linnc, and by 

 the year 17iS he mu able to purciuue the ratata of Hammarley and 

 S..fja for 80,000 Swedish dollar* (above 2$30t tarttng). 



During Uwea eighteen yean hU life waa one of inoeaaant labour. 

 Basidsa hi* practice a* a pb.vician, which wai extensive and lucrative, 

 and hi* duties u professor, he publiahad a most extraordinary num- 

 ber of works on various branches of natural history. Hit work* upon 

 other branches of natural history ware lass important than those on 

 botany, but they all evinced the same ingenuity in classification, and 

 that logical precision which has rendered the writings of Linnaeus so 

 generally admired. In addition to a large number of dissertations, 

 bearing the namea of his pupils, and now collected under the title of 

 ' Amceniute* Academic*?,' the ' Flora,' and ' Fauna Suecica,' ' Materia 

 lledioa,' edition after edition of the 'System* Naturae,' and numerous 

 miscellaneous works, some of great importance, he produced his 

 ' Ptiilosopliia Botanic*,' and ' Species Plautarum ; ' the former, dictated 

 from a sick bed, wai the beet introduction to botany that had been 

 written, and is far superior to the numerous dilutions of it which 

 nutKws |iiently appeared from the pens of his followers ; the latter 

 contributed more than any work which had before been seen to place 

 the existing knowledge of plants in a clear and intelligible form ; the 

 invention of generic and specific names, by which every known plant 

 could be spoken of hi two words, was in itself a great step towards 

 securing order and perspicuity in future botanical writings, and the 

 methodical and concise arrangement of references rendered it invalu- 

 able, notwithstanding its omissions, as a catalogue of the plants at 

 that time known. Viewed with reference to the existing state of 

 knowledge, this book deserves all the praUe which has been given it ; 

 and botanists have, as if by common con-cnt, taken the second edition, 

 which appeared in 1762, as the point of departure for systematic 

 nomenclature. So great U the importance still attached to it, that an 

 edition, chi. fly confuting of it and the ' Genera Plautarum,' incorpo- 

 rated in the state in which they were left by Linnaeus, was only a few 

 years ago published under the name of ' Codex Botanicus Linnseanus,' 

 collated by Dr. Hermann Kberhard Richter. 



Towards the latter part of his life Linnaeus suffered severely in 

 health. Apoplexy succeeded repeated attacks of gout and gravel, and 

 was followed in its turn by paralysis, which impaired his faculties, 

 and at last he was carried off by an ulceration of the bladder, on the 

 10th of January 177S, in the srventy-first year of his age, "His 

 remains were deposited in a vault near the west end of the cathedral 

 at Upsal, where a monument of Swedish porphyry was erected by 

 his pupils. His obsequies were performed in the most respectful 

 manner by the wbola university, the pall being supported by sixteen 

 doctors of physic, all of whom had been his pupils." A general 

 mourning took place on the occasion at Upsal, and King Gmtavus II L 

 not only caused a medal to be struck expressive of the public Ions, but 

 introduced the subject into a speech from the throne, regarding the 

 death of Linnaeus as a national calamity. 



In the article BOTANV, in NAT. HISTORY Div., we have already 

 adverted to the eff ct produced by Linnaeus upon that branch of 

 scii-nce. His niorit tn a syatematist is unquestionable ; the clearness 

 of his ideas, his love of science, his skill in abridging, abstracting, and 

 recombining the undigested matter contained in the bulky tomes of 

 his predecessors, and the tact with which he seized the prominent 

 facts relating to all the subjects he investigated, enabled him to produce 

 a complete revolution in botany, and to place it at a height from 

 which it would never have descended had ho been able to leave his 

 genius and his knowledge to his followers. We by no means agree 

 with those who look upon Linnaeus as a mere nanicr of plants, for 

 there is ample evidence in his writings that his mind soared far above 

 the anility of verbal triflcrs ; but he regarded exactness in language as 

 a most important means to an end, especially in sciences of observa- 

 tion ; and who is there to say that he was wrong? His systems of 

 classification were excellent for the time when they were invented, 

 although now worthless ; and it is never to be forgotten that Linnccus 

 regarded them merely as temporary contrivances for reducing into 

 order the confusion he found in all branches of natural history. 

 Perhaps ho believed his sexual system of botany a near approach to 

 perfection, and ro it was as an artificial mode (and its great author 

 regarded it M nothing more) of arranging the 6000 or 7000 species he 

 was acquainted with ; although it c.muot be usefully applied to the 

 vast multitude! of plants with which botanists are overwhelmed by 

 the discoveries of modern travellers. He never attached the import- 

 ance to it which has been insisted upon by his followers, who, unable 

 to distinguish betw.-cu the good and the evil of his works, have claimed 

 unbounded respect for everything that bears tho stamp of Linnaeus. 

 Neither are we disposed to admit the fairness of those critics who 

 complain of the absence of physiological knowledge from the writings 

 of Linnaeus; it should b* remembered that in his time very little was 

 known upon the subject, and tfint of what did appear in the books of 

 the day a great deal was not likely to attract tho attention of a mind 

 which valued exactness and precision above all other things. The 

 most serious charge that UUDSCUS is open to is that of indecency in 

 hi* language; and we arc bound to say that there is truth in the 

 allegation, and that the language of Linnaeus is sometimes disgusting 

 for its pruriency and coarseness. 



Tho domestic life of Linnaeus does not bear examination, for it is 



well-known that he joined his wife, a profligate woman, in a cruel 

 persecution of hi* eldsnt eon, an amiable young man, who afterwards 

 succeeded to his botanical chair. Wo may smile at the vanity which 

 so often breaks out in the writings of Linnaeus, and at the fidgetty 

 anxiety for fame which induced him to make use of Kothmann as hia 

 trumpeter in the trick of the ' Hortus Agerumentis,' but sueh an act 

 as that we have mentioned forms a stain upon his escutcheon which 

 no talent, however exalted, can wipe out 



After the death of the younger Linnaeus his library and herbarium 

 were purchased for the sum of 10002. by the late Sir James Edward 

 (then Dr.) Smith, and are now in the possession of the Linneoan Society 

 of London. 



(PuHeney, Life of Linnaau ; Smith, in Rees's Cyclopedia; Van Hall, 

 Ejiiitvl'T Luiiuci; Agardh, Antiquilatti Linn<ran<t.) 



* LINNKLL. JOHN, portrait and landscape-painter, WM born in 

 London in 1792. Originally a pupil of John Varley the water- 

 colour painter, he early commenced his professional career by painting, 

 both in oil and water-colours, portraits as well as landscapes, which 

 found places in the exhibitions of the lloyal Academy, the British 

 Institution, and that at Spring Gardens ; but his pictures attracted 

 littli) notice, and he was constrained to add miniature and engraving 

 to the list of his occupations. Gradually however he worked his way, 

 and for many yean Mr. Linnell has held a high place among the artists 

 " outside tho Academy." As a portrait-painter his rank is a peculiar 

 one. His canvass is always small, and he seldom paints much more 

 than the head, while the colour is usually of a not very natural 

 brown ; but tho countenance is always marked by decided, and gene- 

 rally an intellectual and very characteristic, expression, which is the 

 more valuable, as an unusually large proportion of his Fitters have 

 been persons of political, scientific, or literary eminence. Up to 1847 

 portraits formed the larger portion of the pictures exhibited by him 

 at the Koval Academy, his landscapes being for the most part sent to 

 the British Institution, but since then Mr. Linnoll has almost exclu- 

 sively exhibited landscapes. Among tho latest of his portraits was a 

 very excellent one of Thomas Carlyle. 



As a Inndscape-painter Mr. Liuuell's position is also a well-defined 

 one. His manner, founded on the older masters of the landscape art, 

 is little like that adopted by any of the other popular living painters. 

 Yet, though wearing somewhat of an old-world air, many of his 

 landscapes have a very agreeable freshness and individuality 

 such of them at least as are painted directly from nature : in ' com- 

 positions ' he is less at hia ease. His best landscapes are usually repre- 

 sentations of such scenery as may be found on the skirts of the woods 

 and commons of our home counties. Especially is he strong in Surrey 

 scenery, near Roigate, in which county he has for some years re*i<l> d. 

 Even when he paints, as he is fond of painting, a scriptural incident 

 like 'The Disobedient Prophet' (1854) the scene is a faithful 

 transcript of some pleasant spot in Surrey, with two or three figures 

 in conventional costumes placed in the foreground. Among hia later 

 and more important landscapes may be mentioned the ' \Viuduiill ' 

 and ' Heath Scene,' now in the Vemon Gallery ; ' Sand Pits ' (1849) ; 

 'Crossing the Brook' (1850); 'Woodlands' and 'Morning' (1851); 

 The Sear Leaf and 'Timber Waggon,' (1852) ; ' The Village Spring ' 

 and 'Forest Koad' (1853); ' A Country Road' (18 55) ; and 'A Harvest 

 Sunset' (1SS6). To which must be added the'Kveof the Deluge' 

 (1848), an extraordinary assemblage of gorgeous colours ; ' The Ketuni 

 of Ulysses' (1849) ; Christ aud the Woman of Samaria' (1850) ; and 

 ' The Disobedient Prophet' (1854). 



Mr. Linnell ranks among the most thoroughly English of our native 

 landscape-painters, and it is no doubt this honest, homely, nalivo 

 character that has been the chief cause of the popularity of his laud- 

 scapes. He is however a rich aud admirable culourist, though in his 

 fondness for autumnal glow he sometimes oversteps the modesty of 

 nature. But all his works display great observation of nature and a 

 broad and manly style of execution, wanting perhaps only a somewhat 

 sharper touch and more diversified manner to win from the general 

 public the hearty appreciation which is so liberally bestowed upon 

 them by tho artist's more select admirers. 



* LINTON, WILLIAM, was born at Liverpool towards the close of 

 the hut century. Much of his childhood is said to have been spent 

 with some relatives at the foot of Windermere, and there his foudn< -s 

 for scenery appears to have been nurtured. With a view to divert his 

 thoughts from an early-formed wish to become a painter, the youth 

 was placed in a mercantile office at Liverpool; but it being found 

 that the intended purpose was not effected, and the mercantile 

 prospects proving less advantageous than was auticipat< d, he was 

 eventually removed from the office, and, after some hesitancy, per- 

 mitted to proceed to London with a view to trying his fortune as a 

 painter. A picture which he exhibited at the British Institution in 

 1819 of 'A Carpenter's Shop near Hastings ' received much commen- 

 dation; but tho young artist soon found that Lis strength lay not in 

 such homely scenes, though it was not till after he had made several 

 tours to North Wales, the Highlands, &.C., that he turned towards 

 those classic hinds where he was to find congenial themes for his 

 pencil. Extending over several years, Mr. Liutou uadu tours of 

 greater or less duration in Italy, Greece, Sicily, Calabria, and Switzer- 

 land; and from those countries moat of his grander works have been 

 drawn. A list of a few of his more important pictures will show that 



