LINN^US 317 



the chair of botany at Upsala. Linnaeus was a candi- 

 date, but Kosen, an old rival, got the post. Next year 

 Linnaeus was elected to the professorship of physics 

 and anatomy. The two professors now agreed to 

 change places, and in 1742 Linnaeus attained the 

 position which had been his ambition for years, the 

 chair of botany in the chief Swedish university ; he 

 was then nearly thirty-five years old. After this his 

 life was one of steady routine. His instructions for 

 botanical excursions^ give us a glimpse of one part of 

 his work. Even the dress of the student is prescribed ; 

 he is to wear a short tunic and thin trousers reaching to 

 the ankle, besides a cap or hat with broad brim ; he is 

 to carry Linnaeus' Systema Naturoe and other useful 

 books, a lens, a botanical penknife and needle, a lead- 

 pencil, a Dillenian vasculum of sheet copper, a bundle 

 of botanical paper, and an insect-box. The excursions 

 are to occupy one or two days a week in the summer- 

 season, to begin at seven in the morning, and to last 

 twelve hours. The botanic gardens at Upsala were 

 another chief interest with Linnaeus. After the great 

 fire of 1702 they had been neglected, but were speedily 

 restored by the new professor, who tells with pride 

 of the great improvements which he introduced. 



No part of his professorial labours was better planned 

 or better executed than the sending-out of competent 

 pupils to investigate the natural history of distant lands. 

 To every naturalist some of their names are familiar, 

 either as daring travellers, or as the discoverers of re- 

 markable plants and animals. In the Systema Natures 

 Linnaeus commemorates the services of fourteen, to 

 which several more might be added. One-third of the 

 number died abroad in their youth, and half of them 



1 Philosophta Boianica, 



