330 LINN^US AND THE JUSSIEUS 



a enricher de leurs decouvertes des Editions multipli^es, 

 favorises par les grands, lie par une correspondance 

 active avec les savans en credit, soigneux de faire 

 paraitre la science aisee, plus que de la rendre solide 

 et profonde, le naturaliste su^dois voyait chaque jour 

 ^tendre sa doctrine, malgre la resistance des amours 

 propres et des prejuges nationaux." Sachs in his History 

 of Botany gives a much more penetrating estimate. 



Industry, enterprise, sagacity and love of order are 

 conspicuous in all the work of Linnaeus. Rapidity of 

 execution he carried to a point incompatible with 

 excellence in detail. Though, like many men of a 

 strong practical bent, he had a quick eye to his own 

 interest, he was habitually guided by high motives. 

 His enthusiasm in the pursuit of knowledge was bound- 

 less. He could not sleep for thinking of the treasures 

 brought back from the southern seas by Banks, and 

 endangered, as he thought, by the apathy of Solander. 

 Knowledge that could be applied to the wants of man- 

 kind had a special value in his eyes. Not a few of the 

 theses in the Amcenitates Academicce relate to such 

 every-day matters as esculent plants, plants used in 

 dyeing, the ravages of crops by insects, &c. During his 

 journeys in Sweden, according to the instructions of 

 those who sent him out, he accumulated notes and 

 sketches relating to rural industries. In his journey to 

 Oeland and Gothland he remarked the power which 

 marram-grass possesses of binding blown sand, and 

 recommended the planting of this grass on dunes, &c. 

 It has since been used with advantage on the shores of 

 the North Sea and the Baltic, on Cape Cod, in New 

 Zealand, &c. The oak timber stored in the Swedish 

 dockyards was damaged by some boring insect, upon 

 which Linnaeus was asked to report. He identified it 





