A STUDENT AT UPSAL. 25 



make botany his principal study; but it was decreed that he should Hke- 

 wise establish a better order in the other reigns of Nature, especially 

 among the different classes of the animal reign. The new plan of a bo- 

 tanical reform, and the theory of the sexes of the plants, consequently 

 remained the objeft of the thoughts and enquiries of Linn^us. He 

 became acquainted with the difficulties and infinite trouble that would 

 attend the introdu6lion of a new order ; but the charms of invention, the 

 prospers of honour and fame, doubled his zeal, and rendered pleasant 

 his labours. He began to build the foundation of his system, and 

 wrote several treatises on the classes and genera of the plants, which 

 afterwards were published in Holland, and served to disseminate his 

 system of reform. 



Lin us, during his abode at Upsai, had the good fortune to meet 

 with a young friend, to whose zeal and rivalship he owed a great deal. 

 This was Peter Artedi, equally conspicuous for his eminence in a 

 certain branch of natural history, and his unhappy fate. He was born in 

 the year 1705 in Angermania, likewise of poor, parents, and behaved 

 at the college of Hernasand in the same manner as Linnjeus did at 

 Wexicoe, preferring the study of nature, especially that of fishes, to all 

 other accomplishments. In 1724 he came to Upsal, to study divinity, 

 but he soon exchanged this science for natural history. Linn^us 

 himself describes the history of this friendship with those sentiments 

 of liveliness and cordiality which fully evince its value. " In the 

 "year 1728," says LiNNiEUs, " I came to Upsal. I asked what student 

 *' was most eminent for his knowledge in natural history. The name of 

 *' Artedi was heard every where; he had studied there several years 

 f before me. I felt the most ardent desire to see him. On paying him 



fi "a visit 



