MEMOIR OP LINNAEUS. 
27 
thildren, and having a good garden, he gave him also 
a taste for horticulture. After quitting school, he was 
sent to the university of Lund, where he had to con- 
tend with poverty, but nevertheless applied himself 
diligently to his studies. Retiring to his native place, 
he was admitted into holy orders by Bishop Cavallius, 
and first became curate, and afterwards comminster* 
of Stenbrohult. He soon after married the parson’s 
eldest daughter, Christina Brodersonia, and succeeded 
to the charge of his father-in-law, which he enjoyed 
nearly forty years, discharging his duties with piety 
and moderation, and employing the greater part of his 
leisure in the cultivation of his garden. 
Carl, the eldest son of Nils Linmeus, was bom 24th 
May 1707, at Rashult, in the province of Smaland, 
while his father wa9 still comminster. With an inheri- 
tance of his father’s love for plants and their cultivation, 
he is thus recorded by one of his pupils : “ From the 
very time that he first left his cradle, he almost lived 
in his father’s garden, which was planted with some of 
the rarer shrubs and flowers ; and thus were kindled, 
before he was well out of his mother’s arms, those 
sparks which shone so vividly all his lifetime, and lat- 
terly burst into such a flame.” 
The elder Linnseus wished and intended that his 
first-bom should succeed him in the office of pastor, 
* Comminster, in the Swedish church establishment, is a cler- 
gyman somewhat similarly circumstanced to one who in Scotland 
serves a chapel of ease. 
