294 THE LIFE OF THE YOUNGER LINNAEUS. 



and shook off those ties which had so long warped his faculties. Ffom 

 this moment, he continued to show himself the most zealous lover and 

 promoter of his science. 



In the beginning of the year 1778 ensued the death, which was so 

 heavy a loss to the sciences and to the Universities of Upial, and a loss 

 still heavier to him as a son. He was so fortunate as to inherit an illu- 

 strious name; but how arduous was the task of preserving the lustre 

 of that name, and of compensating as much as possible for the loss of 

 him, whose successor he had been appointed fifteen years before. 



Meanwhile he entered, with revived courage and energy, the career 

 assigned to him, and accumulated both honour and merit in his funftions 

 as a professor. The^sphere leftTor his aftivity to exert itself in, was 

 equally vast and important. The arrangement of the manuscript col- 

 leftions of his father, and the superintending of the new editions of 

 several of his works, required both great industry and attention. 



A paternal manuscript became the first among the coUeftion, which 

 he was mduced, agreeable to the wish formerly expressed by his father, 

 to communicate to the learned world. This was the Supplement to 

 his System of the Vegetable Reicn : Supplementum Plantarim 

 Systematis Vegetabiliim. Brunswig, 1781, in otlavo. — Several erroneous 

 reports have been circulated respecting the publication of this supple- 

 ment. We, therefore communicate here the following authentic ac- 

 count, in the words of the celebrated man, to whose care its publica- 

 tion had been entrusted. 



« About three months before my departure from Sweden" says the 

 great botanist, Ehrh art, in a letter to the author, « in 1776, the vene- 

 " rable Linnaeus asked me, if I chose to take the Supplementum Plan- 

 1 ■ " tarum 



