LINNJEUS. 
flower five-parted, superior ; corolla bell- 
shaped ; berry dry, three-celled. There is 
but one species, viz. L. borealis, tw'o-fkiw- 
ered linnaea, a native of the north of Eu- 
rope. 
LINNjEUS, Charles, ( Carl von Linn6 ) 
the most eminent naturalist of this age, and 
the founder of modern botany, was born in 
1707, at Rashult, in the province of Sma- 
land, in Sweden, where his father resided as 
assistant minister to the parish of Stenbro- 
hult. The father, Nils, who was the son of 
a peasant named Bengtson, had, on going 
into orders, assumed the name of LiniiEBus, 
which was therefore the proper name of 
young Charles. Nils was attached to the 
culture of his garden, which he had stocked 
with some of the rarer plants in that cli-' 
mate, and it is to the delight with which 
this spot inspired Charles, from his earliest 
childhood, that he himself ascribes his bota- 
nical passion. A remarkable quickness of 
sight, a hardy constitution, and a retentive 
memory, gave liim the corporeal and men- 
tal requisites for indulging his disposition, 
and thus he was marked out for a naturalist 
almost from his cradle. His father intend- 
ing him for his own profession, sent him to 
the grammar school at Wexio at the age of 
ten, whence he was removed at the age of 
seventeen years to the higher seminary, call- 
ed the gymnasium. In neither of these situ- 
ations was he distinguished for his profici- 
ency in the ordinary studies of a literary 
education ; but he made a rapid progress 
in the knowledge of plants, which he ar- 
dently pursued, both by frequent excursions 
in the fields, and by the unwearied perusal 
of such books on the subject as he was 
able to procure. When his father, in 
1726, came to Wexio for the purpose of 
inquiring into his improvement, he was 
much mortified to find his son declared 
utterly unfit for a learned profession by tu- 
tors, who advised that he should be put to 
some handicraft trade. In this pei plexity 
he applied to the physician, Rothman, who 
was also lecturer in natural philosophy, tlie 
only branch of academic study for which 
young Linnmus had shewn any inclination. 
This person discovered in him talents, which 
though not fitted to make him a theologian, 
were not ill adapted for another profession, 
and he proposed that of physic. As the 
father’s circumstances were very narrow, 
Rothman offered to take the youth gratui- 
tously into his own house during the year 
that remained for him to finish his course in 
the gymnasium ; he also gave him private 
instructions in physiology, and put him into 
a systematic method of studying botany, 
according to I ournefort’s arrangement, 
which was then looked upon as the most 
scientific. 
In 1727, Linnaeus was entered at the Uni- 
versity of Lund ; he lodged in the hotrse of 
Stoboeus, a physician, who possessed a good 
library and museum of natural history. He 
appears here to have paid for his entertain- 
ment by various little services, such as that 
of forming a hortus siccus, and acting as 
an amanuensis. It was, however, only 
by accident that his host came to know the 
extent of his studious ardour. The mother 
of Stoboeus having observed that the candle 
in his chamber was burning at unseason- 
able hours, was induced, through fear of 
fire, to complain of it to her son. Stoboeus 
thereupon entered his chamber at a late 
hour, and found him diligently occupied 
with reading. Struck with this proof of his 
thirst after improvement, he gave Linnreus 
the free use of his library, and admission to 
his table. The advice of Rothman, how- 
ever, caused the young student, in 1728, to 
quit Lund, and to remove to Upsal for the 
sake of the superior advantages it afforded. 
His father advanced him the sum of about 
eight pounds sterling, which he was inform- 
ed was all the paternal assistance he was to 
expect. Thus he was turned out upon the 
world while yet but a learner in the profes- 
sion by which he was to get his bread. His 
little patrimony was soon exhausted, and 
he was reduced to depend upon chance for 
a meal. Unable to pay even for the mend- 
ing of his shoes, he was obliged to patch 
them himself with folded paper, and not- 
withstanding his sanguine temper, he coidd 
not forbear repenting that he had left his 
comfortable situation at Lund. 
At length, in the autumn of 1729, as he 
was intently examining some plant^ in the 
university garden, he was accosted by Dr. 
Olof Celsius, professor of divinity, and an 
eminent naturalist, who was then engaged 
in preparing a work on the plants menti- 
oned in the scripture. A little conversation 
soon apprised him of the extraordinary 
botanical acquisitions of the student, and 
perceiving his necessitous circumstances, 
he took him to live in his own house. It 
was in this year that an account in the Leip- 
sic Commentaries of Vaillant’s Treatise on 
the Sexes of Plants, engaged him in an 
accurate examination of the stamina and 
pistils of flowers, and finding a great vari- 
ety of structure, he conceived the idea of a 
K.2 
