58 
MEMOIR OF LINNjEUS. 
instituted in 1788, by the exertion of the late Sir 
James (then Dr) Edward Smith. This possesses the 
whole library, herbaria, and manuscripts, of the illus- 
trious person whom it records.* They were pm-chased 
by the members at the demise of their respected 
founder and president, and they rightly judged that 
the Linnsean Society of London was the only place 
where these monuments of his labours and abilities 
could be with propriety deposited. 
The person of Linmeus is thus described by his 
biographers. His stature was of middle size, but of 
considerable muscularity, his head large, with a strong 
gibbosity on the back part. This seems to have been 
remarked by himself and all his biographers, and must 
have been a very marked feature in the form of his 
cranium. His features were agreeable, and his coun- 
tenance animated ; his eyes remarkably bright, ardent, 
and piercing, of a brown colour ; the hair brown, and 
towards the decline of life it became hoary. The in- 
spection of his portraits, which are mostly painted at 
an advanced period of his life, give an idea of an open 
disposition, benignity and good-humour, and of a mind 
ardent and piercing. The best esteemed likeness at 
an advanced period, is a picture painted by a Swedish 
artist, belonging to the Royal Academy of Sciences 
at Stockholm, of which there is a copy in the Linmean 
Society of London ; but one of the most pleasing was 
* Upon the death of tho younger Linnasus, the collections and 
manuscripts of his father were offered for sale, and purchased by 
tho late Sir J. E. Smith for L. 1 000. 
