14 
latter "had the laugh of his friend", as he proceeded 
to demolish with the priming-shears of his relentless 
logic the all too luxuriant offshoots of the other's fer- 
tile fancy. But just as a wise pruning conduces to 
strengthening a tree and causes it to bring forth fruit 
more abundantly, so did the unsparing, yet always tem- 
perate and kindly criticisms that ARTEDI passed upon 
his friend LINNAEUS' early scientific labours, contribute 
not a little, we may safely conjecture, towards develop- 
ing and bringing to maturity those great gifts with 
which he was by nature endowed. ARTEDI'S influence, 
doubtless, made itself felt most in the department of 
systematisation, for it was there that he was himself 
strongest, as may be seen throughout the whole of his 
own scientific production. The benefits were not wholly 
on one side, however; for it may be presumed that 
ARTEDI, who was "tardy and serious-minded", stood in 
need of just that kind of stimulus which LINNAEUS, with 
his superabundant fertility of ideas, was so eminently 
qualified to afford; and in temperament, too, LINNAEUS, 
a native of the milder, cheerier South of Sweden, would 
exercise a beneficent influence upon his comrade from 
the bleak forbidding North, by chasing away with the 
exuberance of his youthful high spirits that gloomy 
depression to which Northeners are wont to be prone. 
Thus the two bosom friends were admirably suited to 
one another and their friendly intercourse and cooper- 
ation in scientific pursuits undoubtedly bore rich fruit 
in their future productions. 
Of the participation of ARTEDI in the undergraduate 
life of his time but few notices have come down to us. 
Here and there in the pages of "Acta Nationis Anger- 
mannicse" may be found a mention of his name; to 
the effect that, for instance, he was promoted in his 
seventh session to the class of 'Seniores' in his Nation 
and was later elected 'Curator', or official Head and 
Representative, of that undergraduate association; that 
he did duty as Opposer at the keeping of an Act, and 
that in 1734, at Easter, he undertook to hold a public 
