CAROLUS LINN&US 45 



advised the young Swede to settle in Holland, 

 where he felt certain that his learning and 

 talents would insure him wealth and great 

 renown. But since Linnseus could not now 

 prolong his stay at Leyden, Boerhaave desired 

 him to take a letter from himself to his friend, 

 Professor Burmann, at Amsterdam, the port 

 whence Linnseus had proposed to sail for 

 Sweden. He found Burmann, then much 

 engaged upon his Botany of Ceylon, 1 so over- 

 whelmed with work of several kinds, that 

 courtesy seemed to require that he should 

 make the call short. It was evident that 

 nothing but the letter from that great scientific 

 potentate Boerhaave, at Leyden, had pro- 

 cured him admission to Burmann's presence. 

 On withdrawing, however, he was invited 

 to call again. At the second call he found 

 the Amsterdam professor less preoccupied. 

 They went into the botanic garden. At the 

 end of this interview Burmann was over- 

 whelmed with a sense of the unexampled 

 skill of this young Swede in botany. He had 

 learned so much of him in that one hour as 

 to see that he must secure, if possible, his 

 help in the finishing of his great book of 



1 Thesaurus Zeylanicus, 4to, 1737. 



