UNN2B-US. 



proper name of young Charles. Nils 

 was attached to the culture of his garden, 

 which he had stocked with some of the 

 rarer planis in that climate, and it is to the 

 delight with which this spot inspired 

 Charles, from his earliest childhood, that 

 he himself ascribes his botanical passion. 

 A remarkable quickness of sight, a hardy 

 constitution, and a retentive memory, 

 gave him the corporeal and mental requi- 

 sites for indulging his disposition, and 

 thus he was marked out for a naturalist 

 almost from his cradle. His father in- 

 tending him for his own profession, sent 

 him to the grammar school at \Vexio at 

 the age of ten, whence he was removed 

 at the age of seventeen years to the higher 

 seminary, called the gymnasium. In nei- 

 ther of "these situations was he distin- 

 guished for his proficiency in the ordina- 

 ry studies of a literary education ; but he 

 made a rapid progress in the knowledge 

 of plants, which he ardently pursued, 

 both by frequent excursions in the fields, 

 and by the unwearied perusal of such 

 books on the subject as he was able to 

 procure. When 'his father, in 1726, 

 came to VVexio for the purpose of in- 

 quiring into his improvement, he was 

 much mortified to find his son declared 

 utterly unfit for a learned profession by 

 tutors, who advised that he should be put 

 to some handicraft trade. In this per- 

 plexity he applied to the physician, Roth- 

 man, who was also lecturer in natural 

 philosophy, the only branch of academic 

 study for which young Linnaeus had shewn 

 any inclination. This person discovered 

 in him talents, which, though not fitted to 

 make him a theologian, were not ill 

 adapted for another profession, and he 

 proposed that of physic. As the father's 

 circumstances were very narrow, Roth- 

 man offered to take the youth gratui- 

 tously into his own house during the year 

 that remained for him to finish his course 

 in the gymnasium ; he also gave him pri- 

 vate instructions in physiology, and put 

 him into a systematic method of studying 

 botany, according to Tournefort's arrange- 

 ment, which was then looked upon as the 

 most scientific. 



In 1727, Linnaeus was entered at the 

 University of Lund ; lie lodged in the 

 house of Stobceus, a physician, who pos- 

 sessed a good library and museum of na- 

 tural history. He appears here to have 

 paid for his entertainment by various lit- 

 tie services, such as that of forming a 

 hortus siccus, and acting as an amanuen- 

 sis. It was, however, only by accident 

 that his host came to know the extent of 



his studious ardour. The mother of Sto. 

 boeus having observed that the candle in 

 his chamber was burning at unseasona' 

 ble hours, was induced, through fear of 

 fire, to complain of it to her son. Sto- 

 bceus thereupon entered his chamber at 

 a late hour, and found him diligently oc- 

 cupied with reading. Struck with this 

 proof of his thirst after improvement, he 

 gave Linnaeus the free use of his library, 

 and admission to his table. The advice 

 of Rothvnan, however, caused the young 

 student, in 1728, to quit Lund, and to re- 

 move to Upsal, for the sake of the supe- 

 rior advantages it afforded. His father 

 advanced him the sum of about eight 

 pounds sterling, which he was informed 

 was all the paternal assistance he was to 

 expect. Thus he was turned out upon 

 the world while yet but a learner in the 

 profession by which he was to get his 

 bread. His little patrimony was soon ex- 

 hausted, and he was reduced to depend 

 upon chance for a meal. Unable to pay 

 even for the mending of his shoes, he was 

 obliged to patch them himself with folded 

 paper, and notwithstanding his sanguine 

 temper, he could not forbear repenting 

 that he had left his comfortable situation 

 at Lund. 



At length, in the autumn of 1729, as 

 he was intently examining some plants 

 in the university garden, he was accosted 

 by Dr. Olof Celsius, professor of divinity, 

 and an eminent naturalist, who was then 

 engaged in preparing a work on the 

 plants mentioned in the scripture. A 

 little conversation soon apprised him of 

 the extraordinary botanical acquisitions 

 of the student, and perceiving his neces- 

 sitous circumstances, he took him to live 

 in his own house. It was in this year 

 that an account in the Leipsic Commen- 

 taries of Vaillant's Treatise on the Sexes 

 of Plants, engaged him in an accurate ex- 

 amination of the stamina and pistils of 

 flowers, and finding a great variety of 

 structure, he conceived the idea of a 

 new systematic arrangement, founded on 

 the sexual parts. He drew up a trea- 

 tise on this principle, which was shewn 

 to Celsius, and by him to the botanical 

 professor, Rudbeck, who had the libe- 

 rality to bestow on it his warmest appro- 

 bation. As the professor's advanced age 

 made him desirous of a deputy in the of- 

 fice of lecturing, Linnaeus, in 1730, was 

 appointed to this office, and was also ta- 

 ken by Rudbeck into his own house as 

 tutor to his sons. 



The court of Sweden having issued an 

 order that the academy at Upsal should 



