BOTANICAL REFORM. 



05 



cherous rival. Linnaeus himself related this threatening incident, 

 which was like to have proved sinistrous to his passion, in a letter 

 which he wrote a twelvemonth after to Baron Haller *. 



He intended to pay a visit to Haller at Goettingen^ and to profes- 

 sor LuDWiG at Leipzic, on his way back to Sweden^ and had proposed 

 to himself to pass through Upper and Lower Saxony, and the Danish 

 dominions. Both, according to his promise, expeQed him with impa- 

 tience. But he altered his resolution. Being so near the confines of 

 France, he would not miss this opportunity of seeing Paris, where he 

 had previously made several acquaintances by his correspondence. 



He reached that capital in the beginning of May, where Anthony 

 and Bernard de Jussieu, two brothers, were the principal botanists. 

 The former was the successor of Tournefort, and died in 1758, and 

 his brother in 1777- They gave Linn^us a most kind and flattering 

 reception, though Anthony wasabigotted adherent to Tourn efort's 

 system, and too old to begin to learn anew one. Through them he be- 

 came acquainted with the most eminent French literati, and saw all the 

 botanical and other natural curiosities at Paris. He also saw the herbals 

 of Tournefort, Vaillant, the two Jussieus, and of Surian, a 

 French physician, who had made two voyages to Americay^'nh. Plumier 

 the Jesuit. He visited the public libraries, and the private ones of Is- 

 ARD and others; was introduced to the great entomologist Reaumur, 



* Permansi in Belgio, ut novisti ; interim amicus meus summus, CI. B. . . Litteras amicae 

 meae ad me per tabellarios continuo transmittebat ; sanfle praestitit. Ultimo anno 1738, quo 

 apud Van Royen vixi, (quod erat quarto anno; non enim socer plures quam tres concessit 

 annos) et hoc quidem nutu sponsas, sibi proximum judicavit B . . . esse, ifiea enim recom- 

 mendatione faftus fuit professor ; mox me non reversurum in patriam demonstrabat ; Spon- 

 sam meam ambiebat, fere obtinuit ni intervenisset alius, fallaciam qui prodidlt ; punitus et 

 ipse fuit mille fatis adversis. Epistol. ad Halleruni, vol, i, p. 415. 



P who 



