V v MEMOIR OF LINN-fiUS. 



Swedish provinces, to inquire into their resources, and 

 discover what substances could be usefully employed 

 in their dom estic manufactures. Linnaeus was selected 

 to perform the first journey, and having accepted the 

 appointment, he set out for the Islands of Oeland and 

 Gothland to endeavour to discover an earth fitted to 

 make porcelain ; this was the foundation of his Iter 

 Oelandicum. He was accompanied by six naturalists, 

 but was unsuccessful in the object of the excursion. 

 The tour was nevertheless of great utility ; he attend- 

 ed to mechanics, the arts, antiquities, manners of the 

 people, fisheries, and general natural history. He 

 discovered above one hundred plants which were not 

 previously known to be indigeneous, and first pointed 

 out to the natives of those shores the use of Arundo 

 arenaria to arrest the sand, and bind the soil upon 

 the sea-beach. 



At the age of thirty-four we find Linnaeus enjoying 

 the fruits of all his labours and perseverance, teaching 

 his favourite science as its head in Sweden. He en- 

 joyed himself to the utmost ; he calls the garden " his 

 Elysium," and the enthusiasm with which he set about 

 improving it knew no bounds. At his appointment 

 every thing was in a state of confusion ; the dreadful 

 fire which had converted the best part of Upsala to a 

 heap of ruins in 1702, had extended its ravages also 

 here, and at this period the garden did not contain 

 more than fifty plants that were exotic. Linnaeus 

 aipplied to the Chancellor of the University, Count 

 Charles Gyllenborg, who, fortunately, was a man of 



