190 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



years before we took kindly to It. In the same garden 

 he found Cratcegus aria, the tree that Boerhaave had so 

 prized in Holland. Linnaeus had never before seen 

 this tree in a Swedish garden ; he here says he still 

 less suspected that it was an inhabitant of Sweden. 

 Unless this was one of the exotics of the garden at 

 Stenbrohult, and he excepts that collection, it is diffi- 

 cult to reconcile this statement with the anecdote of his 

 first meeting with Boerhaave. 



He proceeded on his travels. That night, July 15, 

 he found it necessary, he says, to stay at Kyf kil's Inn 

 in Gullby, the last village in this region that could 

 burn its own wood. He adds quaintly, ' Here comes 

 the land to an end ; here one must take boat.' 



One must take boat, sure enough. This belt of 

 low rocky islets between us and the outer sea creates 

 a labyrinth of channels, threading their mesh round 

 countless islets, all barren, and most of them unin- 

 habited, with just here and there a red-painted hut, 

 and here and there a lighthouse or a landmark, or now- 

 a-days a bathing-machine like a sentry-box. Though 

 the sea is rough outside, and the fuller tides of the 

 Skaggerack are felt, here, inside the reef of islets it 

 is calm sailing, as in a river ; but the navigation must 

 be a life's work to learn. Some of these islands are 

 formed of a fine green granite, which takes a high 

 polish and is very handsome; but they are generally 

 of a buff-coloured, smooth, and slippery rock, grey with 

 lichen above high-water mark, and touched at the tips 



