50 



BOTANISTS AND BOTANY. 



this, however, he and the rest of the 

 party rushed to the spot where the 

 Nepeta was growing, and, to the no 

 small surprise of their fellow-pas- 

 sengers, proceeded to pull large 

 quantities of it, the hat being, of 

 course, a minor object of considera- 

 tion, though it was not left behind. 

 Having thus detained the mail for 

 a few minutes, the party resumed 

 their seats, highly pleased with their 

 successful botanical adventure. 



SIR J. E. SMITH 



BARIUM. 



HER- 



The stranger whose predilections 

 are botanical will not be long in 

 London till he turns aside from the 

 heady current and distracting tur- 

 moil of its great thoroughfares, into 

 the comparative seclusion and tran- 

 quillity of Soho Square, to pay a 

 pilgrim's homage at a shrine which 

 commands the veneration of bota- 

 nists from all quarters of the world. 

 In a quiet nook of the square is the 

 suite of rooms occupied bytheLin- 

 naean Society. The house formerly 

 belonged to Sir Joseph Banks, and 

 was for many years the rendezvous 

 of the savans of England, and the 

 resort of scientific foreigners visiting 

 the metropolis. It is now the repo- 

 sitory of the herbarium of Linnteus, 

 that collection of plants which fur- 

 nished the illustrious Swede with 

 the materials for the construction 

 of the artificial method of classifica- 

 tion, with an ultimate view to the 

 establishment of the more philoso- 

 phical system which has since taken 

 its place, founded on the natural 

 alliances of plants. It was in this 

 collection that Linnaeus studied the 

 characters of individual plants, and 

 accumulated the observations which 

 have enabled succeeding botanists 

 to group them into families. 



There is a little history connected 

 with the herbarium, which may 

 prove interesting to other than bo- 

 tanical readers. Sir James Edward 

 Smith, the eminent English botan- 



ist, was, when a young man, a con- 

 stant visitor at Sir Joseph Banks' s, 

 to whom he had recommended him- 

 self by his taste for natural history. 

 It was in this house, in 1783, that 

 he learned from his patron that the 

 library and natural history collec- 

 tions of Linnaeus had been offered 

 to him for a thousand guineas. 

 After a life of labour and vicissitude, 

 Linnaeus had died at Upsal, full of 

 honours and even ofAvealth, in 1778,, 

 in the seventy-first year of his age. 

 He had twenty years before been 

 elevated to the nobility, and as- 

 sumed the title of Von Linne. Still 

 greater honours were paid to his 

 memory after his death. His re- 

 mains were borne to their resting- 

 place in the cathedral of Upsal by 

 members of his university, sixteen 

 doctors of medicine, his former pu- 

 pils, supporting the funeral pall. A 

 general mourning of the citizens 

 showed that his death was felt to 

 be a public loss. King Gustavus II. 

 caused a medal to be struck in com- 

 memoration of his name ; and at- 

 tended a meeting of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, 

 held in honour of the memory of 

 the great naturalist. In his speech 

 from the throne, Gustavus lamented 

 the death of Linnaeus as a public 

 calamity. It seems strange that in 

 so brief a period as five years after 

 these national tributes were paid to 

 his memory, a portion of his pro- 

 perty so identified with his scientific 

 fame as his books and collections in 

 natural history, should have been 

 offered for sale in England. But 

 although Linnaeus, while he lived,, 

 had enjoyed the esteem both of his 

 countrymen and of foreigners, and, 

 after his death, was embalmed in 

 their remembrances, his honour and 

 happiness had been betrayed by the 

 relative who, of all others, should 

 have most dearly cherished them ; 

 whose tyrannical disposition and 

 unnatural treatment of her own 

 offspring had deprived his home of 



