MEMOIR OF LINN^US. 2? 



thildren, and having a good garden, he gave him also 

 a taste for horticulture. After quitting school, he was 

 sent to the university of Lund, where he had to con- 

 tend with poverty, but nevertheless applied himself 

 diligently to his studies. Retiring to his native place, 

 he was admitted into holy orders by Bishop Cavallius, 

 and first became curate, and afterwards comminster* 

 of Stenbrohult. He soon after married the parson's 

 eldest daughter, Christina Brodersonia, and succeeded 

 to the charge of his father-in-law, which he enjoyed 

 nearly forty years, discharging his duties with piety 

 and moderation, and employing the greater part of his 

 leisure in the cultivation of his garden. 



Carl, the eldest son of Nils Linnaeus, was born 24th 

 May 1707* at Rashult, in the province of Smaland, 

 while his father was still comminster. With an inheri- 

 tance of his father's love for plants and their cultivation, 

 he is thus recorded by one of his pupils : " From the 

 very time that he first left his cradle, he almost lived 

 in his father's garden, which was planted with some of 

 the rarer shrubs and flowers ; and thus were kindled, 

 before he was well out of his mother's arms, those 

 sparks which shone so vividly all his lifetime, and lat- 

 terly burst into such a flame/' 



The elder Linnaeus wished and intended that his 

 first-born should succeed him in the office of pastor, 



* Comminster, in the Swedish church estahlishment, is a cler- 

 gyman somewhat similarly circumstanced to one who ill Scotland 

 serves a chapel of ease. 



