10 CAROLUS LINNMUS 



phers seem to have guessed. They all repeat 

 it that the father, the Reverend Nils Linnaeus, 

 a Swedish country clergyman, was fond of 

 plants, and had a choice garden wherein he 

 took his daily pastime; and that in this 

 garden his first-born child developed those pre- 

 dilections which at length became the despair 

 of the father, yet led the son eventually far 

 up the heights of fame. All this is authen- 

 tic, and well told by the several biographers; 

 but there is more in that history which, to 

 me, seems well worth telling, and will give 

 light upon the derivation of Linnaeus's genius 

 as a botanist and upon his accomplishments 

 as a man of learning and of letters. Let us 

 go back to the second generation of his ances- 

 try and glance at men, women and social 

 conditions. 



The grandfather of Linnaeus, on his father's 

 side, was a Swedish peasant, by name Ingemar 

 Bengtson. His wife had two brothers who 

 became university graduates, were afterwards 

 clergymen of some distinction, and men of 

 reputation in the world of learning. These 

 granduncles of our Linnaeus interest us be- 

 cause of their having figured somewhat con- 

 spicuously as stars of destiny in relation to 

 him long before his birth. They even had 



