THBOUGH THE FIELDS 

 WITH LINNAEUS 



CHAPTER I. 



THE LINDEN TREE OF LINNHULT. 



Beneath yon birch with silver bark 



And boughs so pendulous and fair, 

 The brook falls scattered down the rock, 



And all is mossy there. COLERIDGE. 



AT RSshult, in the heart of SmSland, a province of 

 South Sweden, on a slope beside the trunk railway line, 

 stands a small shingle-roofed wooden house, painted 

 deep red, with white windows draped with the whitest 

 muslin the best laundry ever aided a bleaching-ground 

 to produce. A granite obelisk before the house, be- 

 tween it and the rail, tells all the world, or, to be accu- 

 rate, the few persons who daily travel through SmSland 

 by the slow cattle and timber train, that Carl von 

 Linne, oftener spoken of as Linnaeus, was born here on 

 May 23, 1707. The obelisk was erected in 1866. No 

 other building is visible until we arrive at the small 

 station at Liatorp. 



VOL. I. B 



/a 



