THE KNIGHT OF THE POLAR STAR 313 



' He had the honour of conversing daily with this great 

 and excellent queen.' 



The royal collections threw in Linnaeus's way a 

 multitude of very fine and costly objects which other- 

 wise he would have had no opportunity of describing, 

 and these were fortunately all collected before the 

 publication of the enlarged editions of the " Systema 

 Naturae," his grandest work.' Yet we must never 

 forget the element of his persuasive grace of manner 

 in thus leading up to and utilising a fashion as an 

 important factor in the progress of science. The ladies 

 of the court either made collections under his encourage- 

 ment, or painted flowers ; embroidery took a naturalistic 

 turn; the French patterns most admired were those 

 which harmonised an appearance of nature with the 

 received ideas of grace. The colours were more natural 

 than the forms of their designs the reverse of the prac- 

 tice of the present day. Linnaeus devoted some of his 

 leisure time in winter to the arrangement of his friend 

 Count Tessin's collection of fossils at Stockholm, of 

 which an account in Latin and Swedish, making a small 

 folio, with plates, called ' Museum Tessinianum,' came 

 out in 1753. i Count Tessin was likewise partial to this 

 science ' [natural history], ' especially fossils and shells. 

 His countess loved botany. Thus it seemed as if 

 Linnaeus had raised the science from nothing in this 

 kingdom to its utmost extent, it being loved and culti- 

 vated by the greatest people.' l 

 1 Diary. 



