262 LINNJEUS. 



works on botany, and which was intended for faci- 

 litating the study of that science, being completed, 

 he laboured at the species. He was at this period the 

 only person who had at his disposal the materials 

 necessary for the composition of that great work. 

 His herbarium was immense, and no one had seen 

 so great a number of gardens and collections. With 

 the assistance of this methodical book, any person 

 can make out the plants already described by au- 

 thors, and those which ha\'e become known only 

 of late, or which are entirely new. He laboured 

 two successive years at the species ; and it was at 

 this period that he felt the first attacks of calculus, 

 the usual consequence of too sedentary a life, and of 

 long-continued pressure on the lower abdominal 

 viscera." 



In 1753, being again called to Drottningholm, he 

 was desired to describe the natural productions con- 

 tained in the museums of his majesty and the Count 

 Tessin. The former rewarded him with a valuable 

 ring, the latter with a gold watch and a copy of 

 Rumphius's splendid Herbarium Amboinense. But 

 what delighted him most was the assurance given 

 by the queen, that should his son evince a liking to 

 natural history, she would send him to travel over 

 Europe at her own expense. 



This year appeared the Species Plantarum, which 

 was published at Stockholm in two volumes, and 

 contained the characters of 7000 species. Haller 

 denominates this production " maximum opus et 

 jeternum." It is unnecessary here to offer any de- 

 tailed account of it, as it is well known to every 

 botanist. Sir James E. Smith, in his Life of Lin- 

 naeus, observes, that '' it is ever memorable for the 



