XXX LIST OF AUTHORS 



mending shoes. His botanical skill introduced him to 

 the notice of Celsius,, Professor of Theology, who was 

 then engaged upon his " Hiero-Botanicon." Linne was 

 employed to assist him, and afterwards recommended to 

 Rudbeck, Prof, of Botany, who entrusted to him the 

 direction of the Garden, and allowed him occasionally to 

 supply his own place as lecturer. From this time, from 

 his twenty-fourth year, dates the first idea of the great 

 reform which Linne was destined to carry out. In 1732 

 he was sent through Lapland, to collect and describe the 

 plants ; with almost incredible perseverance and diffi- 

 culty he traversed the most remarkable districts, follow- 

 ing the course of the chief chain of mountains, descend- 

 ing to the coast in Norwegian Lapland, proceeding round 

 the Gulf of Bothnia, and returning by way of Finland 

 and the Aland Isles. On regaining his home, he was 

 rewarded by the Academy of Upsala with the payment of 

 his expenses, amounting to 10 sterling. Linne then 

 retired to Fahlun, the chief town of Dalecarlia, of im- 

 portance from its large copper-mines, where he began to 

 practise medicine, and give lessons in Mineralogy : his stay 

 was of short duration ; for university and family quarrels 

 induced him to travel into Holland. There he pre- 

 sented himself to Boerhaave, by whom he was introduced 

 to a wealthy banker, George Cliflbrt, who had a passion 

 for natural science. Linne was soon installed as Curator 

 of Cliffords Botanical Garden at Harlecamp, and con- 

 tinued to reside there three years. Then it was that he 

 began to systematize his views, and to make his first ge- 

 neral application of them. Up to that time, though many 

 and learned works had appeared on natural history, yet 

 in most of these works the subject had been treated gene- 

 rally*, the different species were not clearly distinguished, 

 no attempt had been made to form a complete and sy- 

 stematic catalogue of them ; they were described on no 

 uniform plan, and in terms without precise signification ; 

 the names assigned to them varied at the will of every 

 author, and were often long descriptive phrases which 

 served only to overload the memory. These were the 

 defects which Linne undertook to remedy. He had to 

 discover methods of distribution and classification founded 

 upon determinate and marked characters, which would 

 apply to all the natural objects in creation; he had to 

 invent terms enough to indicate the prodigious variety of 



* Exception must here be made of the works of John Raj, " le pre- 

 mier veritable naturaliste du regne animal," as Cuvier calls him. 



