SKETCH OF CAROLUS LINNJSUS. 835 



society was the Duke of Montausier, who was a constant visitor 

 at the Hotel Rambouillet, the seat of the most refined manners of 

 the day, and married the daughter of the marquise of that name, 

 Julie d'Augennes. This house was of Italian origin, and proba- 

 bly received the fork along with its other Italian heritages. The 

 duke, as the first chamberlain of King Louis XIV, had excellent 

 opportunities, which he improved, to introduce the fork among 

 the aristocracy and make its use common. 



The history of the fork after the middle of the seventeenth cent- 

 ury chiefly concerns the extension of its use and its spread from 

 the aristocracy to humble circles of society. Its form has also 

 been gradually improved, and changed from that of the straight, 

 two-pronged instrument of the olden time, of little use except as 

 a spit, to the gracefully and conveniently curved, broad, many- 

 pronged English fork of the present day, spoon-like in shape, and 

 precisely adapted to its purpose. — Translated for the Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly from Ueber Land und Meer. 



SKETCH OF CAROLUS LINNAEUS (CTARL VON LINNE). 



WHATEVER may be the future progress of the sciences of 

 botany and zoology, Prof. Flower has said, in the British 

 Association, " the numerous writings of Linnaeus, and especially 

 the publication of the ' Systema Naturae,' can never cease to be 

 looked upon as marking an era in their development." In the 

 " Systema Naturae," the speaker added, the accumulated knowl- 

 edge of all the workers at zoology, botany, and mineralogy, since 

 the world began, was collected by patient industry, and welded 

 into a complete and harmonious whole by penetrating genius. 



Carolus Linn^us, afterward called Carl von Linne", was born 

 at Rashult, in the parish of Stenbrohult, in the province of Sma- 

 land, Sweden, May 13, 1707, and died at Upsala, January 10, 1778. 

 He was the eldest child of Nils or Nicolas Linnaeus, commissioner 

 and afterward pastor of the parish, and Christina, the daughter of 

 the previous incumbent. The father was versed in natural his- 

 tory; a well-stocked flower-garden was attached to the house; 

 and the child, hearing his father talking about the virtues of cer- 

 tain of the plants, at four years of age became interested in them, 

 and formed the habit of asking about the names and qualities of 

 all that he saw. The father, as a condition of further answering 

 his questions, insisted that he should remember all that he had 

 been told before. The child thus received a valuable mnemonic- 

 discipline that served him through life, and was familiar from the 

 start with the Latin and the vernacular names of plants. His 



