20 



L I N N ^ U S 



works was one of the ricliest and most valuable in Sweden. He also had 

 the advantage of receiving the immediate instruftions of his proteCtor, 

 and of being iible to take his advice in all difScult cases. Upon the 

 whole, Celsius treated him v/ith paternal care, and gave him 

 various proofs of his benign favour on many subsequent occasions. 

 In return for such kindness, Linn.eus, among all his patrons cherished 

 most the memory of this venerable man. He never spoke of him 

 without expressing his reverence and gratitude. Celsius died, like 

 LiNN^us, in the full enjoyment of his celebrity, on the twenty-fourth 

 of June, 1756, at the advanced age of seventy-six years, and found al- 

 ways among his academical colleagues in his former pupil the warmest 

 and most grateful of friends. 



TouRNEFORT was the only botanical author to whom Linnaeus 

 stood thus far indebted for the greater and more solid part of his know- 

 ledge. The sovereign empire which that great writer had acquired in 

 botany, since the latter end of the last century, began now to totter. 

 The young student at Upsal conceived the idea af creating a new 

 system of doQrine, It was a Frenchman who inspired him with this 

 new thought. It was Vaillant, one of the most penetrating bo- 

 tanists, who died too soon for his scientific fame, and for the botanical 

 discoveries and elucidations which he gave as demonstrator of the 

 royal botanical garden at Paris, where he departed life in the year 

 1722. We shall have occasion, in the course of this work, to make 

 more ample mention of him. 



Thus far the division of the vegetable reign had been made from the 

 various parts and properties of the plants, from their fruits, from the 

 number of the petals of their flowers and blossoms, &c. Till then, 



TOURN EFORT5 



