836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mother used to relate that he could always be soothed, when cry- 

 ing, by giving him a flower. When seven years old he was put 

 under the private tuition of Telander, a teacher of only the ordi- 

 nary stamp, and three years later was sent to Wexio to school, his 

 father wishing to prepare him for holy orders. The story was the 

 same at both places. He made no progress in the routine studies 

 of the course, except in mathematics and physics, but used every 

 opportunity to look after flowers and turn over books of botany. 

 With Gabriel Hok he did a little better, for that teacher allowed 

 him some liberty to gratify his tastes ; but the people at the gym- 

 nasium were again troubled by his perversity. Finally, the father 

 and the teachers held a consultation, and it was decided that, 

 although his moral record was unexceptionable, he offered no 

 promise as a scholar, and must learn a trade. So he was, or was 

 about to be, apprenticed to a shoemaker, when the father, having 

 some bodily malady for which he had to visit Dr. Rothman, spoke 

 incidentally of the trouble Carolus was giving him. The doctor 

 thought the boy might succeed in medicine and natural history, 

 and offered to take him to board, and help him in his studies. He 

 gave him private lessons in physiology, and introduced him to 

 Tournefort's botanical system, by the aid of which Linnaeus con- 

 tinued to study the local plants. At the end of a year, Linnaeus 

 was sent to the University of Lund, recommended as his private 

 pupil by Hok, who, taking great liberties with the facts, sub- 

 stituted his own good opinion for the curious letter with which 

 the principal of the gymnasium had armed the candidate. This 

 letter was to the effect that pupils might be compared to young 

 trees in a nursery : there would sometimes be some that would 

 grow up wild in spite of all the care that might be spent upon 

 them, but which might still do well if transplanted to a different 

 soil. " It is with such a hope that I send this youth to your insti- 

 tution, where, perhaps, another atmosphere may favor his develop- 

 ment." At Lund, Linnaeus found employment as a copyist with 

 Dr. Kilian Stobaeus, Professor of Medicine and physician to the 

 king, who had a museum of minerals, shells, and dried plants. 

 The professor was not at first aware of the kind of treasure which 

 he had in his house ; but Linnaeus, having formed a friendship 

 with a fellow-student who had access to the doctor's library, bor- 

 rowed books from it and sat up till late in the night reading them. 

 Mother Stobaeus observed the light in his room, and, being wor- 

 ried about danger from fire, warned her son of it. He detected 

 Linnaeus at his reading ; but the explosion and subsequent expla- 

 nations resulted in a widening of the young man's opportunities 

 for pursuing his favorite studies. On Rothman's advice, Linnaeus 

 determined to go to Upsala, where the advantages seemed to be 

 better than at Lund. The three hundred francs that he was able 



