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to her, and was accepted, on condition of becoming 

 qualified to practise medicine ; this was to prepare the 

 way for settling in Falun as assistant and successor to 

 his future father-in-law. In April, 1735, he set out for 

 Holland, in order to graduate at the ancient university 

 of Harderwyck ; Morseus (probably) and some other 

 friends provided a scanty supply of money. The 

 business of graduation was soon accomplished ; a thesis 

 on intermittent fevers (which Linnaeus attributed to 

 particles of mud taken up with the drinking-water) 

 being accepted as proof of competence. He was now 

 at liberty to visit botanical gardens and professors. 

 Gronovius was so much struck by the merit of a first 

 sketch of the Systema Natures that he asked leave to 

 print it. Boerhaave, the first physician as well as the 

 first naturalist in Holland, provided him with letters of 

 introduction. Burmann, professor of botany at Amster- 

 dam, took him into his house for some months, and 

 then a wealthy banker, named Cliffbrt, who had a 

 country-house and fine gardens at Hartenkamp, near 

 Haarlem, entertained him as long as he could be induced 

 to stay. Such was the respect paid to a knowledge of 

 plants, which was already recognised as very uncommon. 

 The next three years, most of which Linnaeus spent 

 in Holland, were years of extraordinary activity. He 

 now published nine books, which were destined to give 

 a powerful impulse to natural history ; among them 

 were the Fundmnenta Botanica, the Genera Plan- 

 tarum and the Flora Lapponica. In Amsterdam he 

 feU in with his old friend and fellow-student, Peter 

 Artedi, who was at the moment without subsistence or 

 prospects. Linnaeus obtained for him an employment 

 suited to his taste, the description of the fishes in the 

 collection of Albert Seba, an apothecary of Amsterdam. 



