90 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



lander, and Fabricius, for instance, are well known 

 in the scientific world ; and there is perhaps nothing 

 more truly honourable to the memory of their 

 great master, than the fact that he was the 

 founder of such a school of able and enterprising 

 men. 



Linnaeus impressed upon his students, and took 

 care to remember in his own writings, that it was 

 absolutely necessary to be exact in botanical 

 descriptions — that the genus should be properly 

 named, and that it should represent an idea into 

 which certain species could enter. 



To the poor, and even to the rich, foreign students 

 who resided at Upsala entirely on his account, he 

 was most generous, refusing the perquisites which 

 he should have received for his lectures. To the 

 former he remitted the money from purely benevo- 

 lent motives, while he declined it from the others, 

 that he might convince them how truly proud he 

 was of his science, so that he would fain make it 

 free of cost to those who sought after it. One 

 of them having repeatedly urged Linnaeus to accept 

 a Swedish bank-note as an acknowledgment for the 

 pains he had taken to teach him, he said, "Tell 

 me candidly, are you rich, and can you afford 

 it ? Can you well spare this money on your return 

 to Germany ? If you can, then give the note to 

 my wife ; but, if you be poor, so help me Heaven, 

 I will take not a single farthing from you." " You 

 are the only Swiss that visits me, and I feel a 

 pleasure in telling you all I know, gratis," was his 



