50 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



to sit at his feet had not that hideous accident de- 

 stroyed him.' 



Tournefort, weakened by his laborious travels in 

 the East, was felled by a blow on the chest from the 

 axle of a carriage an injury from which he had not 

 strength to recover. Tournefort was the first inventor 

 of the Genera; therefore was he most immediately 

 Linnaeus's metaphysical father. To meet with him at 

 the first unfolding of his mind was a regeneration to our 

 Carl. Tournefort was his real tutor, then came Vaillant. 

 Carl's own neatly kept little library consisted of books 

 calculated rather to fire than to satisfy his curiosity. 

 These works, he felt, were only the beginning of science ; 

 the fire laid, he longed to apply the match and fire 

 the mass. 1 He attempted to arrange in systematic 

 order the plants growing around him, which, being 

 Swedish, varied considerably from the French examples 

 of Tournefort and Vaillant. 



He felt acutely the imperfection of even Tourne- 

 fort 's system. Oh, if he could perfect the system, or in- 

 vent one which would be less incomplete ! This was his 

 boyish dream : a fine ambition for a youth of seventeen. 

 Even then he began to feel the difficulties attending 

 classification. He had already got beyond Rothman, who 

 worked very contentedly with his favourite text-books. 



Carl remained three years with the worthy Dr. 

 Kothman, and gained his education. These three years 

 at Wexio passed quickly, pleasantly, now that he had 

 1 Jardine. 



