4 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



travellers avoid the snail t&g 1 (snail train) lest a 

 worse thing, the cargo train, befall them. But here 

 we are 011 our ground, in medias res, as explained before, 

 which is a comfort ; for I defy anyone to get at Stenbro- 

 hult from any civilised place, other than Scandinavian, 

 within a fortnight or ten days at least. 



Liatorp is in the parish of Stenbrohult, of which 

 Nils Linnaeus, father of our hero, was rector, so this is 

 the scenery of the great botanist's early life. 



These wooden houses, the only sort known in Swedish 

 villages, are much larger than from the outside they 

 appear to be. They have shingle roofs, set on mostly 

 at a right angle sometimes more, sometimes less, but 

 thereabout. This seeming trifle shows a naturally in- 

 artistic feeling in the Swedes. The right-angled gable 

 always makes a common-looking house ; it has no 

 specific character. 



The wooden walls being so thin makes the apart- 

 ments surprisingly roomy inside ; yet they are warm 

 and comfortable withal. Every bedroom by day be- 

 comes a fine sitting-room with handsome mahogany 

 sofas, even in poor houses. The flowers, too, are a great 

 adornment, for the inhabitants keep plants in every 

 window. That cactus (you would take it for a green 

 rock or a fossil cactus) is seventy years old, for certain ; 

 it has been so long in the family, and was not young 

 when it came to them. It may be over a hundred 

 years old. It or its immediate ancestor belonged to 

 Nils Linna3us. It is not rash to suppose it one of 



iff, fast train. 



