758 EIN N 
the image of every diftinfit objeft oft the globe we inhabit 
is reflected on the mind and the memory. To this fyl- 
tem may be juftly applied the nervous obfervation of Dr. 
Johnfon, in his delineation of the character of Shakefpeare: 
“The ftream of time, which is continually wafliing away 
the diffoluble fabrics of other fyftems, paffes without in¬ 
jury by the adamant of Linnaeus.” 
LINNAS'US (Charles), fon of the great Linnaeus, was 
born January io, 1741, at the houfeof his maternal grand¬ 
father at Fahlun. His father was anxioully defirous of- 
his excelling in natural hiftory, more particularly botany ; 
and, after endeavouring, from his mod tender years, to 
make him fond of flowers, committed him, when about 
the age of nine or ten, to the more particular care of 
fome of his own moll favourite pupils. By them he was 
taught the names of the plants in the Upfal garden, and 
fuch of the principles of natural fcience as were fuited to 
his period of life, as well as to converfe habitually in La¬ 
tin. He proved a docile and ready fcholar, and appears 
to have given fatisfadlion to his father, who procured for 
him, at the age of eighteen, the appointment of demon¬ 
strator in the botanic garden, an office then firlt contrived 
on purpofe for him. Having learned to draw from na¬ 
ture, he became an author at the age of twenty-one, pub- 
lifhing in 1762 his firlt Deras Plantarum Rariorum Horti XJp- 
JalienJis, the plates of which, in outline only, like thofe 
of Plunder, were drawn by his own hand. Thefe are fuf- 
ficiently faithful and ufeful, if not ornamental. The de¬ 
scriptions are full and fcientific. In 1763 another Dccas, 
or collection of ten fpecies, came out on the fame plan. 
Whether the Upfal bookfellers did not encourage him to 
proceed, or for what other reafon we know not, he never 
printed any more numbers under this title. In 1767, 
however, he publifiied at Leipfic ten more plates and de¬ 
scriptions, like the above, entitled Plantarum Rariorum 
Horti Upfalienjis Fafcicu/us Primus. To this he was perhaps 
inltigated by his friend Schreber, who, the year before, 
had given to the world a fimilar work, defcribing ten 
rare oriental plants, drawn by himfelf. But neither of 
thefe publications was ever extended to a Second fafcicu- 
lus. In 1763 he was nominated adjunct profelfor of bo¬ 
tany, with a promife, hitherto unexampled, that, after his 
father’s death, he Ihould Succeed to all his academical 
functions. In 1765 he took his degree of doctor of phy- 
ficy and began to give leCtures. 
His progrefs would probably have been happy, if not 
brilliant, but domeftic chagrin fapped the foundation of 
all his felicity, and damped his ardour in every purfuit. 
This arofe from the conduCt of his unnatural mother, an¬ 
other example of that rare and deteftable depravity exhi¬ 
bited by the mother of Savage the poet. Not content 
■with dishonouring her liufoand’s bed, and making his 
home as uncomfortable as foe could by the meanelt parfi- 
mony and difgufting petty tyranny, the wife of the great 
Linnseus conceived a hatred for her only fon, which foe 
difplayed by every affront and perfecution that her fitua- 
tion gave her the means of inflicting on his fufceptible 
and naturally-amiable mind. According to Fabricius, 
ihe forced her hufoand, who by luch a conceffion Surely 
partook largely of her guilt and meannefs, to procure the 
nomination of his pupil Solander to be his future fuccef- 
for, in preference to his own fon; and it was a part of 
her plan that he foould marry her eldeft daughter. So¬ 
lander, however, difdained both the ufurpation and the 
bait, refuiing to leave England; and the mifguided father 
recovered his fenfes and authority, caufing his fon, as we 
have Said above, to receive this truly-honourable diftinc- 
tion. The mind and Spirit of the young man nevertheless 
Hill drooped; and, even when he had attained his thirti¬ 
eth year, he would gladly have efcaped from his miferies 
and his hopes together. The authority of the king was 
obliged to be exerted, at his father’s folicitation, to pre¬ 
vent his going into the army. This meafure of the pa¬ 
rent was happily followed up by kindnefs and encourage¬ 
ment in his botanical purfuits, to winch treatment the Son 
jEUS, 
v?as ever Senfible 5 and he revived from his defpondency 
before his father’s death, which happened when he was 
thirty-feven years of age. 
Though obliged by his mother to purchafe, at her own 
price, the library, manufcripts, herbarium, See. which ha 
ought by every title to have inherited, he rofe above every 
impediment, and betook himfelf to. the ufeful application 
of the means now in his hands, for his own reputation 
and advancement. His father had already prepared great 
part of a third botanical Appendix, or Mantijfa ; from the 
communications of Mutis, Kcenig, Sparmann, Foriter, 
Pallas, abd others. To this the younger Limueus added 
thofe of Tiuinberg from the Cape, which his father, “ with 
half-extinguifoed eyes,” as Condorcet beautifully relates, 
had juft been able to glance over, but not to deferibe. 
Hence originated the Suppiementum Plantarum, printed at 
Brunfwick, under the care of Ehrhart, in 1781. The in¬ 
genious editor inferted his own new characters of fome 
genera of moffes; which Hedwig has fince confirmed, ex¬ 
cept that fome of the names have been juftly rejected. 
The plants of the Suppiementum are admitted into the 
fourteenth edition of the Syilema Vegetabilium by Mur¬ 
ray, and figures of fome of the moft curious have been 
publiflied by Dr. Smith, in his Plantarum leones ex Her- 
bario Linnteano. Three botanical differtations alfo ap¬ 
peared under the prefidency of the younger Linnams, on 
Graffes, on Lavandula, and the celebrated Methodus Muf- 
corum ; which laft was the work, and the inaugural thefis, 
of the prefent profeffor Swartz of Stockholm. Thefe form 
a fequel to the 186 fimilar effays, which moft of them 
compofe the feven volumes of the Amoenitates Acade¬ 
mics, the reft being publiflied by Schreber in three addi¬ 
tional ones. 
The fubjeCt of our memoir had always felt a ftrong de¬ 
fire to vifit the chief countries of learned and civilized 
Europe. For this purpofe he was obliged to pawn his 
juvenile herbarium, made from the Upfal garden, to his 
friend Alltroemer, for fifty or fixty pounds. He arrived 
at London in May 1781, and was received with enthufiafm 
by the furviving friends and correfpondents of his father, 
being in a manner domefticated under the roof of fir Jo- 
feph Banks, whofe friendfoip, kindnefs, and liberality, 
could not be exceeded; neither could they have been by 
any one more gratefully received. Here the ardent Swe¬ 
dish vifitor had every afliftance for the preparation of fe- 
veral works on which he was intent, as a fyftem of the 
Mammalia, a botanical treatife on the lily and palm tribes, 
and new editions of feveral of his father’s ftandard books. 
None of thefe however have yet been printed. An attack 
of the jaundice rendered half his ftay in England uncom¬ 
fortable as well as ufelefs to him. He proceeded to Paris 
in the latter end of Auguft 1781, accompanied by the 
amiable and celebrated Brouffonet, with whom he became 
acquainted in London. His reception in France was not 
lefs flattering than what he had experienced in England. 
He was enriched with duplicates of Commerfon’s plants 
from the herbarium of the excellent Thouin, which 
amounted to about 1100 fpecies, and had never been com¬ 
municated to any other foreigner. In the following fpring 
he vifited Hollahd, tracing with filial piety every veftige 
of his father’s fteps at Rartecamp and elfewhere; and re¬ 
ceiving, as he had done at Paris and London, ample con¬ 
tributions for his herbarium, library, and muleum of foells 
and infers. The next place in which he made any ftay 
was Hamburgh, where feveral of his own friends were al¬ 
ready fettled; and from hence he returned by Copenha¬ 
gen and Stockholm, vifiting his friend Fabricius at Kiel, 
and his patron baron Alltroemer at Gottenburgh, and 
finally arriving at Upfal in February 1783. In his pro¬ 
grefs he had received feveral academical honours, as well 
as ample teftimonies of fcientific and perfonal refpedt, be¬ 
ing a man of agreeable and unaffuming manners, without 
vanity or oftentation, though fomewhat, perhaps not un¬ 
duly, tenacious, that his own difeoveries and perform¬ 
ances foould not be confounded with any thing left be- 
Iliad 
