io THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



story of the linden tree of the Linnasi should have great 

 interest, showing as it does how the pride of hard-won 

 place went hand in hand with a deep and increasing 

 love of nature, inherited from three worthy peasants 

 of Hwitaryd (who dwelt under the shadow of the great 

 lime tree) whose descendants intermarried, and their 

 fine qualities combined to form one brilliant descendant, 

 the flower of the family tree the splendid Linnaeus. 



For all that Buckle holds that there is no such thing 

 as hereditary transmission of qualities, no virtue in pure 

 race, the general experience of the world runs otherwise. 1 



In speaking of a botanist like Linna3us it is in- 

 cumbent on one to mention root and branch, and Lin- 

 naeus was proud of his genealogy. In his notes made 

 for his autobiography which never became a book he 

 gives in full the genealogy of the Linnaei, with their 

 botanical and clerical traditions, which I shall epitomise 

 here. Skip it, ye who care not for such matters ; easier 

 reading lies beyond. Yet one has to learn less interest- 

 ing lines of kings, and there are crowds who read the 

 pedigrees of horses in the stud-book and racing calendar. 



' Ingemar Suensson, a peasant at Jomsboda, in the 

 parish of Hwitaryd in Smaland : from him descended 

 Charles Tiliander, who took his name from a tall tilia 

 standing between Jomsboda and Linnhult. He studied 



1 Galton, in his book on Hereditary Talent, says, 'I would 

 strongly urge that the sketch should be pretty exhaustive as regards 

 the nearer kinsfolk, male and female, certainly including aunts and 

 uncles on both sides, and preferably great-aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

 This has great statistical value.' 



