64 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



SO much satisfaction in reviewing the events of 

 this period of his early history, as the intimate 

 friendship he now contracted with a fellow-student, 

 named Artedi, who afterwards distinguished him- 

 self by his knowledge of fishes and umbelliferous 

 plants. To the picture he has drawn of his friend, 

 Linnaeus has added a slight sketch of himself. 

 There was a great difference in the personal ap- 

 pearance, as well as in the temperament and dis- 

 position of the two youths. Artedi was of a tall 

 and handsome figure, more serious, and of a 

 deliberate judgment ; whereas his friend was short 

 in stature and stout, hasty in temper, and of a 

 sanguine turn. The two companions pursued 

 their favourite studies with an honourable spirit of 

 emulation. They divided the kingdoms and pro- 

 vinces of nature between them, and while Linnaeus 

 yielded the palm to Artedi in ichthyology (the 

 science of fish), the latter acknowledged Linnaeus 

 to be his superior in entomology, or that of insects. 

 Each kept his discoveries to himself, though for no 

 great length of time, since not a day passed with- 

 out one surprising the other by narrating some new 

 fact, so that emulation produced mutual industry 

 of research, and stimulated each to new exertions. 

 Linnaeus was now in his twenty-second year, 

 about which time he met with a review of Le 

 Vaillant's treatise, " Sur la Structure des Fleurs " 

 ("On the Structure of Flowers"), by which his 

 curiosity was excited to a close examination of the 

 stamens and pistils (the central and reproductive 



