/58 MEMOIR OF LINN^US. 



instituted in 1788, by the exertion of the late Sir 

 James (then Dr) Edward Smith. This possesses the 

 whole library, herbaria, and manuscripts, of the illus- 

 trious person whom it records.* They were purchased 

 by the members at the demise of their respected 

 founder and president, and they rightly judged that 

 the Linnaean Society of London was the only place 

 where these monuments of his labours and abilities 

 could be with propriety deposited. 



The person of Linnaeus is thus described by his 

 biographers. His stature was of middle size, but of 

 considerable muscularity, his head large, with a strong 

 gibbosity on the back part. This seems to have been 

 remarked by himself and all his biographers, and must 

 have been a very marked feature in the form of his 

 cranium. His features were agreeable, and his coun- 

 tenance animated ; his eyes remarkably bright, ardent, 

 and piercing, of a brown colour ; the hair brown, and 

 towards the decline of life it became hoary. The in- 

 spection of his portraits, which are mostly painted at 

 an advanced period of his life, give an idea of an open 

 disposition, benignity and good-humour, and of a mind 

 ardent and piercing. The best esteemed likeness at 

 an advanced period, is a picture painted by a Swedish 

 artist, belonging to the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 at Stockholm, of which there is a copy in the Linneean 

 Society of London ; but one of the most pleasing was 



* Upon the death of the younger Linnaeus, the collections and 

 manuscripts of his father were offered for sale, and purchased by 

 the late Sir J. E. Smith for L.1000. 



