h I N 



being intprwoTen with ivy, in a piiSurefque manner. It 

 vas firft difeovered in Britain, June 2d, 179 J, by tlie late 

 yrofelfor .lames Beattie of Aberdeen, in an old fir wood at 

 Mearns in that county. 



The root is fibrous and perennial. Stems trailing, csecp- 

 ing, perennial, woody, round, leafy, fomcwhat hairy, often 

 jcddifTi, a little branched, very long and flender. Leaves 

 •vergreen, oppofitc, llalked, roundi(K or ovate, veiny, cre- 

 Tiatc in the fore-part, paler beneath, bearing a few fcattered 

 hairs on the upper fide. Flowering branches ereft, three or 

 four inches high, with a pair or two of leaves near the hot- 

 lorn, naked above, terminating in two equal floucr-flalks, 

 with a pair of fmall leaves at their origin, and each bcnving 

 •lie droopivg_^oa>fr, accompanied by two fmall, lanceolate, 

 flifhtly. remote, oppofite bradeiis, which, like the Ralks, 

 calyx and germen, are clothed with glandular vifcid hairs. 

 The JJoi^'eri are of a delicate pink, elpccially within, being 

 pale wliite or yeilowifh externally. They are f»id in the 

 Flora Suecka to be very fragrant at night, fmclling like 

 Meadow-fweet. An infufion of the leaves, witli milk, is 

 eiteemed a fpecific, among the Swedes, in rheumatic and 

 fciatic diforders. The inhabitants of Wed Bothnia cure 

 paintul complaints in the feet of their (heep, with a cataplafm 

 or fomentation made of this herb. The fmoke of it when 

 burnt is though: by the Norwegians beneficial in the fcarlet 

 fever, and its decoftion in the itch. 



This is the only known fpecics of Linnita. The right 

 honourable fir Jofeph Banks is pofi'elTed of a drawing, made 

 by an artift; who was employed many years ago to delineate 

 plants in the Eaft Indies, which reprefents a plant'anfwcring 

 to the fame generic charafters, but of which no fpecimens 

 having ever been feen, the drawing is fuppofed to be a 

 forgery. The younger Linnxus, when in England, was 

 much interefled by the fight of it, but endeavoured in vain 

 to afcertain its truth. 



LINN^AN Syjlem of Botany. See Botany, Flowers, 

 and Sexuaf, Syjletn, 



LINNjEUS, Charles, afterwards Von Linne, in Bio- 

 graphy, the molt eminent of modern naturalifts, whofe la- 

 bours and abilities rendered his favourite fcience of Botany 

 firtl more phihifophical, and then more popular, thari it had 

 ever been in any other age, was born at "Radiult, in the 

 province of Smaland, in Sweden, May 13th, old *ftyle, 

 1 707. His father Nicholas Linnxus was alfiltant minifter of 

 theparifhof Stenbrohult, to which the hamlet of Rafhult 

 belongs, and became in procefs of time its paftor or reftor ; 

 havi.ig married Chrillina Broderfon, the daughter of his 

 predecefifor. The fubjedl of our memoir was their firfl-born 

 child. The family of Linnxus had been peafants, but 

 fome of them, early in the 17th century, had followed lite- 

 rary purfuits. In the beginning of that century regular 

 and hereditary furnames were firll adopted in Sweden, on 

 which occafion literary men often chofe one of Latin or 

 Greek derivation and ftrufture, retaining the termination 

 proper to the learned languages, as Melander, even when the 

 name itfclf was not taken from thence, as Retzius. A re- 

 markable Linden-tree, Tilla europsa, growing near the place 

 of their refidcnce, is reported to have given origin to the 

 names of Lindelius and Tiliander, in fome branches of 

 this llmily ; but the above-mentioned Nicholas is faid to 

 lave firft taken that of Linnxus, by which his Ton became 

 fo extc-nfively known. Of the talle which laid the founda- 

 tion of his happinefs as well a« his celebrity, tins worthy 

 father was the primary caufe. Refiding in a delightful Ipot, 

 on the banks of a fi. e lake, furioandcd by hills and valleys, 

 woods and cultivated ground, his garden and his fields 

 yielded hiin both amukmcut and profit, and bij infant foa 



3 



LIN 



imbibed, under his anfpices, that pure and ardent love of 

 nature for its own lake, with that habitual exercife of tin 

 mind in obfervation and adivity, which ever after marked 

 his charafter, and which were enhanced by a redtitude of 

 principle, an elevation of devotional talle, a warmth of 

 feeling, and an amiablenefs of manners, rarely united m thofe 

 who fo tranfcendently excel in any branch of philofophy or 

 fcience, becanfe the culiivalioii of the heart does by no 

 means fo conltantly as it ought keep pace with that of the 

 iinderdandlng. The maternal uncle of Nicholas Linnxus, 

 Sucno Tiliander, who had educated him with his own fchil- 

 dren, was alfo fond of plants and of gardening, fo that 

 thefe taftes were in fome meafiire hereditary The young 

 Charles, as he tells us hinifelf, was no fnoiier out of his 

 cradle, than he alinoll lived in his fatlier'? garden. He was 

 fcarcely four years old when he heard his fallier defcant, to a 

 rural party, on thediilindions and qualities ol fome particu- 

 lar plants, culled from the flowery turf on which they were 

 fcated, and this firit botanical lecture was ever after remem- 

 bered as an cpocjia in his fcientific life. He neverceafed to 

 enquire of his father concerning the names and properties of 

 all the produflions of the garden and the fields, that he 

 could pofiibly procure ; nor did the economy of infedts, even 

 at this early period, efcape his attention. His youthful in- 

 aptitude for retaining the names of natural objecls, fome- 

 times tired and difpleafed his inllruclor, whofe wholefome 

 authority in time corrected this defeft, and perhaps early 

 prevented his falling into the error of tfarofe dciultory fpecu- 

 latorsof nature, who have agreed to dcfpife that methodical 

 and didaftic precifion of ideas, which, for want of early 

 dilcipline, they could never attain. The meinory of Lin- 

 nxus, indeed, like his powers of perception, was naturally 

 good, and his fight was always remarkably acute. The vi- 

 vacity and brilliant expreflion of his eyes are faid to have 

 lafted through life, and indeed are diiplayed in mail of his 

 portraits. 



Thefe flowery ftudies however were obliged to give way,, 

 in fome meafure, to lefs agreeable occupations, and unhap- 

 pily the private tutor proved a man of lefs winning manners 

 than the beloved parent. Thus at feven years of age gram- 

 mar had but an unequal conteft with botany in the mind of 

 the young ftudent. Nor was he much more fortunate when 

 removed in i 7 1 7 to the grammar-fchool of Wexio, the mailer 

 of which, as his difgutted pupil relates, " preferred ftripea 

 and punifliments to admonitions and encouragements.'' Such 

 a fyltem was near extinguiihing all the talents it was inte: ded 

 to cultivate, and when the youth was committed, two years 

 afterwards, to the care of a more judicious and amiable pri- 

 vate tutor than before, the horrors of the rod feem ftill to 

 have predominated over his tafte for learning. In 1722 he 

 proved competent, neverthelefs, to be admitted to a higher 

 form in the fchool, and his drier ftudies were now allowed 

 to be intermixed and fweetened with the recreations of bo- 

 tany. In 1724, being 17 years of age, he was removed to 

 the fuperior feminary, or Gymnafwm, and his dellination was 

 fixed for the church. But the original inclinations of his 

 mind, and its early prejudices, here grew but the more ap- 

 parent. He had no talle for Greek or Hebrew, ethics, 

 metaphyfics or tlieology ; but he devoted himfelf with fuc- 

 cefs to mathematics, natnral philofophy, and a fcientific 

 purfuit of his d.irling botany. The Chloris Goth'ica of Bro- 

 raelius, and Ilorlus Up/aH:>ifis of Rudbeck, which made a 

 part of his little hbr.ny, were calculated rather to fire than 

 to fatisfy his curiofity ; while his Palmberg and Tilbnds 

 might make hurt fenfi;>!e how much more than they had ac- 

 compiiihea lliU remained to be done. His own copies of 

 thefe books, ufcd wiih the utmolt care and neatcefs, are 



I)0\« 



