LING 



3451 



LINOLEUM 



facturing ingenuity has made it possible to mix 

 cheaper material with flax and produce a prod- 

 uct which only the expert .can detect as in- 

 ferior. Hemp is the usual substitute. S.L.A. 



Consult Gibbs's Household Textiles; Moore's 

 Linen. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referre'd to 



the following- articles in these volumes : 

 Adulteration in Food- Dimity 



stuffs and Clothing Flax 

 Cambric Hemp 



Damask Lace 



LING, PEHR HENRIK (1776-1839), a Swedish 

 poet, remembered not so much for his relation 

 to literature as because he invented the so- 

 called Swedish system of gymnastics. He trav- 

 eled in his youth through France and Germany, 

 and taught fencing, first at the University of 

 Lund and later at a military school in Karl- 

 berg. Like Jahn in Germany, he tried to stir 

 up love of country in the young men by his 

 writings, and at the same time he trained their 

 bodies at his gymnastic' institute in Stockholm. 

 His system of exercise for the development of 

 the' different parts of the body has been very 

 widely adopted, and has formed the basis for 

 many subsequent gymnastic methods. 



LINNAEA, line 'a, or TWINFLOWER, a 

 delicately-beautiful little wild flower, found in 

 cool, mossy northern woods. Its creeping stems 

 trail through woods and on mountains of North 

 America from Labrador as far south as Mary- 

 land, and in the northern countries of Europe 

 and Asia. Here and there slender stalks rise 

 from the creeping stems, each bearing several 

 pairs of round, evergreen leaves and two beauti- 

 ful, drooping, bell-shaped flowers of pink or 

 rose-tinged white. These small, shy, perfume- 

 laden twinflowers were favorites of the emi- 

 nent Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, and were 

 named for him. As Emerson expresses it, they 

 are a "monument of the man of flowers." 



LINNE, lin'nay, KARL VON, better known as 

 LINNAEUS, line' us, (1707-1778), one of the 

 world's greatest naturalists, was born at Rash- 

 ult, Sweden. Because he was the first natural- 

 ist to arrange the plants of earth according 

 to a scientific classification, he is sometimes 

 called the "father of modern botany." He be- 

 gan to write his great books on plant life in 

 1729; the first was a small one on the sex of 

 plants. The following year he began his lec- 

 tures and revels in the wonders of plants and 

 flowers. He then wrote his celebrated Systema 

 Naturae. He went to Amsterdam, Holland, to 

 ive with the famous Professor Boerhaave, and 



published his Fundamenta Botanica while there. 

 A wealthy banker invited him to visit him in 

 his magnificent garden at Hartecamp, where 

 for a period he worked and lived like a prince, 

 and wrote his Flora Lapponica, the result of a 

 trip through Lapland. 



In 1740 Rudbeck died, and Linnaeus suc- 

 ceeded him as professor of natural history at 

 the University of Upsala. In 1750 he published 

 the Philosophia Botanica and three years later 

 Species Plantarum. His published works num- 

 ber over 180. To him science is indebted for 

 the introduction of a new system of naming 

 plants, known as the binomial (two-name) 

 method. He placed the specific name of the 

 plant in the margin, while the name of the 

 genus stood at the head of the description. 

 Though this arrangement is not followed to- 

 day, it laid the foundations for present systems 

 of classification. He also originated the method 

 of classifying plants according to the number 

 of stamens and pistils. The lowly, fragrant 

 linnaea was named after Linnaeus. 



LINNET, lin' et, a small finch, so named 

 because it feeds on linseed, or flax, and hemp. 

 In summer the male is a chestnut brown in 

 color, with forehead, throat and breast of crim- 

 son. The plumage varies greatly in color with 

 the season, causing the same bird to be known 

 at different times by different names, as gray 

 linnet, red linnet, etc. It has a sweet song and 

 is easily tamed, making it a favorite cage-bird. 

 The North American linnet is called the red- 

 poll. It nests in the extreme north and in win- 

 ter migrates as far south as Virginia and Illi- 

 nois. One species is very common in Califor- 

 nia. The linnet builds its nest of dry grass and 

 moss in low trees, bushes or tufts of grass; the 

 eggs are four to six in number, and are white, 

 tinged with green or blue and spotted with red- 

 dish brown. 



LINOLEUM , lino' le urn, a preparation of 

 linseed oil which is hardened by falling in the 

 form of a spray through a current of air. By 

 this means it becomes an elastic and tough 

 mass. Chloride of sulphur was first used as a 

 hardening agent, but it was discovered that the 

 combination with oxygen secured the same 

 effect. It is used as a substitute for India 

 rubber when rolled into sheets, and when vul- 

 canized, or hardened by heat, it may be pol- 

 ished like wood for handles of knives or for 

 moldings. When dissolved it is used as a 

 varnish for waterproof fabrics; as a paint it 

 may be used on both iron and wood, and as a 

 cement it is as adhesive as glue. 



