46 
MEMOIR OP LINNAEUS. 
Swedish provinces, to inquire into their resources, and 
discover what substances could be usefully employed 
in theirdomesticmanufactures. Linnaeus was selected 
to perform the first journey, and haling accepted the 
appointment, he set out for the Islands of Oeland and 
Gothland to endeavour to discover an earth fitted to 
make porcelain ; this was the foundation of his Iter 
Oelandicum. He was accompanied by six naturalists, 
but was unsuccessful in the object of the excursion. 
The tour was nevertheless of great utility ; he attend- 
ed to mechanics, the arts, antiquities, manners of the 
people, fisheries, and general natural history. He 
discovered above one hundred plants which were not 
previously known to be indigeneous, and first pointed 
out to the natives of those shores the use of Arundo 
armaria to arrest the sand, and bind the soil upon 
the sea-beach. 
At the age of thirty-four we find Linnaeus enjoying 
the fruits of all his labours and perseverance, teaching 
his favourite science as its head in Sweden. He en- 
joyed himself to the utmost ; he calls the garden “ his 
Elysium,” and the enthusiasm with which he set about 
improving it knew no bounds. At his appointment 
every thing was in a state of confusion ; the dreadful 
fire which had converted the best part of Upsala to a 
heap of ruins in 1702 , had extended its ravages also 
here, and at this period the garden did not contain 
more than fifty plants that were exotic. Linnaeus 
applied to the Chancellor of the University, Count 
Charles Gyllenborg, who, fortunately, was a man of 
