224 LINNiEUS. 



In Burmann's house he found a collection of na- 

 tural objects and an extensive library, both of 

 which were of great use to him. The time passed 

 pleasantly enough, and he deferred his return to 

 Sweden till the following spring ; about which pe- 

 riod, a circumstance occurred that proved of great 

 advantage to him. Dr George Cliffort, burgomaster 

 at Amsterdam and one of the directors of the Dutch 

 East India Company, who was a zealous lover of 

 natural science, was in need of a domestic physician 

 to take daily care of his health. Boerhaave, who 

 was his medical attendant, recommended Linnseus, 

 whom he represented as being also an excellent bo- 

 tanist, and capable of arranging his botanic garden. 

 Cliffort accordingly invited Burmann and Linnaeus 

 toHartecamp, his villa, where they found many new 

 plants from the Cape of Good Hope. The young 

 Swede pointed out those which had not been de- 

 scribed, and evinced so accurate a knowledge of bo- 

 tany, that the burgomaster made him a proposal of 

 freeboard and lodging, with a salary of 1000 florins. 

 The terms were accepted with no small satisfaction. 



This year he published a tract which he had 

 commenced at Upsal, — his Fundamenta Botanica,— 

 in which he exhibited the basis of his new system 

 in 365 aphorisms. About the same time he printed 

 his Bibliotheca Botanica, another small work, the 

 materials of which he had found in the libraries of 

 Spreckelsen, Burmann, Gronovius, and Cliffort. A 

 description of the banana-tree {Musa paradisiaca), 

 which had flowered in the garden of his patron, 

 formed the subject of a third treatise. The Im- 

 perial Academy of Naturalists at Vienna admitted 



him as a member, under the honourable appellation 



2 



