60 THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



physician and botanist. The letter stated that 

 Sir Hans was the only man worthy of an intro- 

 duction to Linnaeus, and Linnaeus the only man 

 worthy of an introduction to Sir Hans. The 

 pretty speech fell flat Sir Hans was bored by 

 Linnaeus. 



Linnaeus then went on to Chelsea, and saw 

 Miller at the Physic Garden, who received the 

 revolutionary Swedish botanist in much the 

 same way thought him ignorant, especially of 

 botany. That passed. The two men recog- 

 nized that they were brothers. Linnaeus was 

 allowed the run of the Physic Garden, and 

 afterwards wrote in his diary : " Miller of 

 Chelsea permitted me to collect many plants 

 in the Garden, and gave me several dried 

 specimens collected in South America." 



It is curious how seldom Linnaeus' friends 

 were made at first sight. Dillenius, the Pro- 

 fessor of Botany at Oxford, unimpressed at first, 

 later on offered Linnaeus half his salary if he 

 would only stay with him. In his own country 

 it was at first difficult to get any recognition, 

 but later on the students attending his lectures 

 increased from five hundred to fifteen hundred. 



In 1748 another Swede Peter Kalm, a 

 pupil of Linnaeus, and lecturer on economic 

 botany in Sweden came to England. The 

 King of Sweden, at the suggestion of Linnaeus, 

 had commissioned Kalm to visit the colonies 

 in North America, keep notes of all he saw, and 

 bring back specimens of useful plants. 



Kalm left Upsala in the autumn of 1747, 

 met with contrary winds and storms, put into 

 Norway, and reached England in February. 



