4 
INFANCY OF 
the year 1708 he obtained the living of Stenbrohult , 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 distriH. 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 Ch ari.f.s’s Garden. This landed property 
strengthened the love and inclination of the young tree-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 He carried this colleflion so far as to gather all kind 
of weeds and wild 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 
* Linnalus himself says of his father, in a letter to Baron Haller, dated May 28, 
in which he announces his death: “ Fuit summus aestimator plantarum rariorum, et 
“ semper habuit sele&um hortum plantarum non vulgarium.’' He was an uncommon lover 
of rare plants, and had a select garden of several rare species. 
him 
