S0 6 EIGHTEENTH CENTUR Y. FT. in. 



tables and minute details about the structure of animals and 

 plants. Yet Lihnaeus's writings are worth infinitely more 

 than those of Buffon for one simple reason, he had a more 

 earnest love of truth. 



Linnaeus seems to have been born a botanist. He writes 

 in his diary that when he was four years old he went to 

 a garden party with his father and heard the guests dis- 

 cussing the names and properties of plants ; he listened 

 carefully to all he heard, and ' from that time never ceased 

 harassing his father about the name, quality, and nature of 

 every plant he met with,' so that his father was sometimes 

 quite put out of humour by the incessant questioning. 

 However at last, when Dr. Rothmann took him into his 

 house, he had opportunities of learning, and from that time 

 he advanced so rapidly that he was soon beyond all his 

 teachers. 



In 1736, after meeting with many kind friends in his 

 poverty, and making a journey to Lapland, which was paid 

 for by the Stockholm Academy of Science, he went to 

 Holland. Here he called on the celebrated Boerhaave, who 

 with his usual good nature introduced him to a rich banker, 

 named Clifford, who was also a great botanist. This was 

 the turning-point of Linnaeus's life. Mr. Clifford invited 

 him to live with him, treated him like a son, and allowed 

 him to make free use of his magnificent horticultural garden. 

 He also sent him to England to procure rare plants, and 

 gave him a liberal income. It was at this time that 

 Linnaeus is said to have been so overcome by the sight of 

 the mass of golden bloom on the furze at Putney Heath, 

 that he fell upon his knees and thanked God for having 

 created a plant of such wondrous beauty. Linnaeus con- 

 tinued with Mr. Clifford for some time, till his health began to 

 fail, and he found besides that he had learnt all he could iu 



