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mother of Linnaeus. On the Jonsboda farm stood a very large 

 linden tree, so old and with so many traditions that it was re- 

 garded by the people as a holy tree. Any damage done to this 

 tree, it was claimed, would surely bring misfortune upon the head 

 of the perpetrator. When the two sons began to study for the 

 ministry, it was natural that they should think of this tree in 

 selecting a family name. They called themselves Tiliander ; 

 Tilia is the Latin for the linden or basswood, and andros the 

 Greek for man. It may not be amiss to state that at that time 

 the common people of Sweden did not have any family names, 



known by his given name, the given name of his father with the 

 word son appended, and the place where he lived. The farmer 

 mentioned above was known as Ingemar Svenson from Jonsboda. 

 His father's name was Sven Carlson and that of his grandfather, 

 Carl Johnson. The names of his two sons would have been 

 Carl and Sven Ingemarson had they remained in the peasant 

 class, instead of Carl and Sven Tiliander. 



The daughter married a farmer, Ingemar Bengtson, and her 

 son's name was Nils Ingemarson, until he entered the "gym- 

 nasium." He was also born in Jonsboda and, when selecting a 

 name, he naturally also turned to the same old linden tree as his 

 maternal uncles had done. He called himself Linnaeus. It is 

 remarkable that two of his father's maternal granduncles also 

 bore another Latin form of the same name, viz., Lindelius. 

 Some claim that even this name was derived from the same old 

 linden tree, but this is scarcely in accordance with the facts. 

 More likely it traces its origin from the Linden Farm in Dannas 

 Parish, where their ancestors lived. 



But what has this genealogy to do with Linnaeus' s relation to 

 North American botany? Perhaps nothing directly, but in- 

 directly a great deal ; for the circumstances and surroundings 



the man. In his younger days, Sven Tiliander was the house- 

 chaplain of Field-marshal and Admiral Viscount Henrik Horn, 

 who was for many years Governor of Bremen and Verden, two 

 cities with territory in Germany acquired by Sweden through the 



