8 
LINNiEUS 
king in the rich Uppsala garden, he recalled his 
father’s garden at Stenbrohult, as he had there “ with 
his mother’s milk excited his imagination with a never- 
extinguished love of flowers.” 
But it was not only in the garden that the father 
excited the love of plants in his son. “ Carl,” as he 
related himself, “ was barely four years old when he 
accompanied his father to a picnic at Moklanas, the 
promontory which jutted out into Lake Moklen, form¬ 
ing a bay in front of the church,” in the most 
beautiful summer time, and when the guests towards 
evening rested in a green meadow, the Pastor told the 
company how each flower had its name with specially 
remarkable and marvellous characters, describing the 
roots of Succisa , Tormentilla and Orchis , with many 
others. The boy received these descriptions with 
delight, the subject being one so sympathetic with his 
temperament. From this time his father had no peace 
from the lad, whose demands for the names of plants 
came faster than could be answered. He often forgot 
the names certainly, whereupon he was admonished by 
his father, who threatened that he would never give 
him the name of another plant, if he forgot the last; 
consequently the boy’s whole care afterwards was to 
remember the names, lest he should be deprived of 
his most cherished delight. 
With increasing age Carl naturally enlarged his 
field of observation outside the limits of his garden, 
and thus he attained a knowledge which, in after 
years, gave such splendid returns. Wonder and love 
for his birthplace were early awakened in the child’s 
bosom, and the feeling was so strengthened during 
his boyhood, manhood and old age, that he could 
never think upon it without emotion. “ Stenbrohult 
is a church,” he says in one of his autobiographies, 
“ furnished with the delightful plants which Sweden 
displays, for it lies near the lake Moklen, which here 
extends in a quarter of a mile [English mile and three- 
quarters] long bay, and almost reaches the foundations 
