272 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



grey, just breaking into the sihery green aspect that 

 the lime-tree wears in spring and yet it was not three 

 months since that time ; but he had travelled so hard, seen 

 so much, attended to so many new impressions since c .hen, 

 that it seemed an age. The golden tree seemed a symbol 

 of the riches Linnaeus had bestowed upon his country. 

 c It is a gold-mine to me,' said his brother, the bee- 

 king, on another occasion, ' it fills my hives with gold.' 

 A change came over his manner of travelling as 

 Linnaeus hastened homewards, not stopping nor diverg- 

 ing to rest at great houses. He travelled by way of 

 Jonkoping and Lake Vettern and Motala, across- 

 country, as quick as horse and sail could carry him, to 

 Westerns, eating, as he laughingly said, his breakfast 

 overnight that he might be ready to start the earlier 

 in the morning. He arrived in Upland on August 13, 

 to hear them complain of frosty nights, which had done 

 much damage ; but he came home in time to save his 

 rarest and tiniest Indian growths in the Upsala garden 

 from being injured. His thought of these cherished 

 treasures quickened his pace ; it was a race for their 

 life, for he knew that without his presence no provision 

 would be made for their preservation. Linnaeus at 

 once exerted himself, and prevailed on the university to 

 appoint additional gardeners, an assistant, and a labourer 

 to attend to the new greenhouse in addition to the 

 twenty men before employed, and to allot one hundred 

 extra (?) cartloads of firewood every year for the use 

 of the hothouses. 



