54 NATURAL HISTORY. 



innovations in botanical classification having rendered 

 him anything but a persona grata to such scientific lumin- 

 aries as Sir Hans Sloane and Dillenius, the latter being 

 the then professor of botany at Cambridge. In 1737, 

 Linnaeus returned to Holland, and published several 

 scientific works ; the best known being the ' Genera Plan- 

 tarum ' and the ' Flora Lapponica.' The former of these 

 contained the characters of all the known genera of plants; 

 while the latter was the result of the botanical observa- 

 tions which he had made in his expedition to Lapland. 

 At this time also he paid a visit to Paris, and formed a 

 permanent friendship with Antoine de Jussieu, the first of 

 a famous group of botanists of this name. 



In 1738, Linnaeus returned to Sweden, having spent 

 three years and a half on his travels. He was now one 

 of the most famous naturalists in Europe, but the 

 reception which he met with from his own countrymen 

 was by no means of a flattering or cordial character ; and 

 an attempt to practise as a physician in Stockholm proved 

 at first far from profitable. The university of Gottingen 

 paid him the compliment of offering to him the chair of 

 botany, which he refused; and shortly thereafter one or 

 two lucky hits in his practice brought him into public 

 notice, with the result that he became one of the most 

 popular physicians in Stockholm. He was now offered, 

 and accepted, various scientific and medical preferments, 

 which added not only to his reputation, but also to his 

 income; and towards the close of 1739, he married the 

 daughter of Dr Moraeus, to whom he had been so long 

 engaged. In 1741, he was appointed to the professorship 

 of medicine and anatomy in the university of Upsala ; 



