AN OVERDOSE OF PROSPERITY 21 



the neglect and ill-usage he received from the governor, 

 as Linnaeus has feelingly related in his ' Flora 

 Suecica,' under the genus Bartsia. This did not in- 

 crease any attraction Linnaeus may have felt for tropical 

 travel, although Bernard de Jussieu wrote to Linnaeus 

 at Hartecamp, October 1737> a glowing account of his 

 younger brother who had sailed for Peru in July last 

 year on a botanical expedition, and the marvels he was 

 finding. (He, too, soon came to an untimely end.) 1 



Bartsch gone, Linnaeus now felt lonelier still. The 

 scientific veterans, Boerhaave and others, had no sym- 

 pathy with his longing to be at home. Why on earth, 

 they thought, should a botanist desire to go to Sweden ? 

 Let him marry a woman of fortune, learn Dutch, and 

 settle in Holland. Let the first love be only a wild and 

 beautiful adventure. Yes, let it be that ! whispered self- 

 interest, and his elder comrades and patrons. But a 

 rush of love of country and of the one woman thrilled 

 through him. Never ! he would be faithful ! 



' At Leyden he bid farewell to all his friends and 

 acquaintances, meaning to return to Sweden by way 

 of Paris.' Professor van Royen, astonished at his re- 

 solution to leave Leyden entirely, offered him every 

 kind of advantage if he would remain with him for 

 only half a year in order to assist him in arranging 

 the university garden, and demonstrate to him his 



1 Linnaeus heard that Joseph de Jussieu, returning from Peru on 

 board a ship which attacked an English vessel, was killed by a 

 cannon-shot ; but Haller says he died in Peru. 



