74 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



f Genera Plantarum,' ' a performance of infinite dili- 

 gence, extraordinary industry, and incomparable know- 

 ledge. I cannot sufficiently praise it.' Van JRoyen calls 

 him the prince of botanists a title which has been 

 allowed him ever since. De Sauvages professes himself 

 astonished that so young a man could publish so many 

 and such various works. Haller says, April 1738: ' What 

 do you care for Siegesbeck ? Was there ever a man who 

 embarked in a new and grand enterprise unenvied?' 

 He says of the ' Genera Plantarum/ { Its whole plan 

 is unborrowed, unattempted, and original. It is built 

 on the strictest examination of 8,000 plants. But what 

 Linnasus has done none has ever attempted or thought 

 of.' All this wrangling was hidden from the world 

 behind the Latin language. 



'The winter of 1738 nipt the laurels he had 

 gathered in Holland,' says Stoever in his own inimit- 

 able way. i ^Esculapius, at his first setting out, proved 

 as unkind as Flora. Nobody would entrust a botanist 

 with the curing of patients.' 



The prudent Elizabeth, or her friends for her, could 

 not look without a shudder on the prospect of marriage 

 with one ' whose abilities, however great they might be, 

 seemed only to unfit him for any usual or profitable 

 pursuit.' 



1 The only mark of distinction he obtained was at a 

 sitting of the Academy of Sciences ' [of Upsala ?] i on 

 October 4 at the illustrious senator Count Bonde's (then 

 president) of Stockholm, when he was unanimously 



