312 LIKN^US AND THE JUSSIEUS 



helped one another. When Celsius at last returned to 

 Upsala, he took Linnseus into his house, and allowed 

 him to work in his library. 



At this time Linnaeus read a review of a pamphlet by 

 Vaillant,^ which advocated the view that the stamens 

 are the male organs of the plant, a view which had been 

 slowly gaining ground ever since the days of Grew. It 

 used to be thought that the reading of Vaillant was 

 a chance spark which kindled in Linnseus a mighty 

 flame. He himself believed, and allowed his pupils to 

 announce, thab the hint taken from Vaillant had incited 

 him to prove "with infinite labour" that the stamens 

 and pistil are sexual organs ; and that the discovery of 

 the real function of organs so characteristic of the 

 flowering plants justified their use in the definition of 

 classes and orders. We are now obliged to recognise 

 that neither Vaillant nor Linnseus made any solid con- 

 tribution to the doctrine of the sexuality of plants, and 

 that the merits of the sexual system are independent, 

 or nearly so, of the functions of the parts employed 

 in it. 



Olaf Eudbeck, the younger, professor of botany at 

 Upsala, being now seventy years of age, invited Linnseus 

 to become his adjunct. He began to lecture, set up the 

 botanical excursions which afterwards became famous, 

 and with Eudbeck's help improved himself in ornitho- 

 logy. In 1731 the Academy of Sciences at Upsala 

 desired to promote the exploration of Lapland, and 

 invited Linnseus to undertake the journey. He set out 

 from Upsala on May 13, 1732 (O.S.), being that day 

 twenty-five years old. He describes his equipment in 

 these words : " My clothes consisted of a light coat of 

 West Gothland linsey-woolsey cloth without folds, lined 



1 Infra, p. .343. 



