The Y0U80 HATUSAIIST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 105. NOVEMBER 12th, 1881. Vol. 3. 



LINNiBUS. 



REFERENCE is so constantly made 

 to this illustrious man, and the 

 I contraction "L" occurs so frequently 

 after the name of species in all depart- 

 ments of natural history, that it may 

 not be amiss to lay a brief outline of 

 his life before our young friends, which 

 we condense from the biography by Sir 

 W. Jardine in the Naturalist's Librarj'. 

 I Carl Linn«EUs was born in Sweden, at 

 lUshult, in the province of Swaland, on 

 I the 24th May, 1707. His grandfather 

 ' was called Ingeman Bengtsson, and the 

 surname with which we are so well 

 acquainted, was adapted from a large 

 Linden or Lime Tree, growing on the 

 ' ftirm on which his father, Nils Linnaeus, 

 I was born. This custom of giving names 

 from natural objects is said to have 

 been not uncommon in Sweden, and 

 it is an interesting coincidence that 

 the surname, distined to become so 

 famous, especially among botanists, was 

 directly derived from a botanical object. 

 Nils Linnaeus was a clergyman who 

 dfevoted much of his leisure to the 

 cultivation of his garden, and inheriting 

 his father's taste for plants, Carl from 

 his earliest years was in the habit of 

 spending much of his time in the sarhe 



pursuits. Intended for his father's 

 profession, he entered school at nine 

 years of age, but his distaste for the 

 necessary studies was developed very 

 early, and his attention seemed turned 

 I to botany from the first. At the age 

 i of sixteen he is said to have been known 

 among his college companions by the 

 name of " The Little Botanist," and 

 very shortly afterwards his instructors 

 gave his father to understand that it 

 was but wasting his money in en- 

 deavouring to force his education in the 

 way he wished. A Dr. Rothman, 

 whom the father had consulted for some 

 complaint or other, suggested that the 

 botanical studies of young Carl might 

 be more serviceable in medicine than in 

 anything else, and offered his services 

 to help him in that career. Young 

 Linnaeus now found an opportunity of 

 following his favourite pursuit, and was 

 not long before he ventured to criticise 

 the arrangement of Tournefort in refer- 

 ence to various plants. With difficulty 

 he obtained admission to the university 

 at Lund. Here he lodged with a Dtl 

 Kilian Stobaeus, who had both ah ex- 

 cellent library and collections of shells, 

 birds, plants, &c., &c. To these youn^ 

 Linti^us had free access, and here' he be- 



