4 INFANCY OF 



the year 1708 he obtained the living of SlenbrohuU, a benefice 

 rather more lucrative than that which he enjoyed before, and in which 

 he continued until his death. The greatest pleasure annexed to his new 

 tenement, was a good, extensive garden, in which he used to spend his 

 leisure hours. He was a professed lover of flowers, and when a few 

 years had elapsed, rendered his garden the finest and most variegated 

 in the whole distrift. It contained upwards of four hundred fpecies of 

 flowers*, many of which were of foreign growth. 



This darling passion of the parent, became transcendent in the son. 

 The latter, in want of play -mates, made the garden the circle of his ju- 

 venile diversions. Whenever the father planted and cultivated the gay 

 parterre, he was sure of finding Charley skipping by his side, to share 

 the pleasant toil, and to water the beds. The parent to reward and en- 

 courage the fondness and care of our infant florist, assigned to him, when 

 he reached the eighth year, a separate spot in the garden; which, in 

 honour of his son, was called Charles's Garden. This landed property 

 strengthened the love and inclination of the young free-holder. Resolved 

 to make his as diversified and copious as possible, he made little excur- 

 sions in the neighbouring fields and woods, to colleQ: flowers and plants 

 to enrich it with. He carried this coUeQion so far as to gather all kind 

 of weeds and vv'ild herbs, — a treasure which his father found afterwards 

 a painful job to eradicate. The aftive youngster brought even wild 

 bees and wasps in the garden, who by their hostile demeanour began 

 to desolate the paternal hives. Some severe reprimands deterred 



* L1NN.EUS himself says of his father, in a letter to Baron Haller, dated May 28, 

 1748, in which he announces his death: " Fuit summus aestimator plantarum rariorum, et 

 " semper habuit seleftum hortum plantarum non vulgariiim." He was an uncommon lover 

 of rare plants, and had a select garden of several rare species. 



him 



