12 PLANT NAMES 



Csesalpinus of Arezzo, Alpini of Padua, Gerard of 

 Cheshire, and Turner, an EngHsh clergyman. 



During the seventeenth century a fair amount of 

 work was done in classifying plants, studying their 

 nature and culture, and fixing their names. But in 

 the eighteenth century Linnaeus arose, that never- 

 to-be-forgotten enthusiast to whom the science of 

 Botany owes so much. He was a Swede, born in 

 1707, the son of a poor clergyman. By his abihty, 

 his untiring industry, and his unconquerable resolu- 

 tion, he rose to be an eminent physician. Botanist 

 to the King, President of the Swedish Academy of 

 Science, and Professor of Botany at Upsala Uni- 

 versity, and was finally raised to the nobility, and 

 became wealthy enough to purchase a fine estate. 

 He was elected a member of all the learned societies 

 of Europe, and, when he died, v/as buried in the 

 Cathedral of Upsala. The whole University went 

 into mourning, and the King expressed the national 

 grief in a speech from the throne, and had a medal 

 struck to commemorate him. 



Notwithstanding all the honour he received during 

 his life — enough to turn the heads of most men — 

 Linnaeus kept to the end the beautiful humility 

 which was natural to him. The desire was ex- 

 pressed that some plant should bear his name, and 

 he selected the little Linncea borealis as the most 

 appropriate. He described it as " this little 

 northern plant, long overlooked, depressed, abject, 

 flowering early," and he said that it reminded him 

 of the hardships and struggles of his own early life. 



