G 
LINNAEUS 
and low, rich and poor, in the parish and outside it, 
that no one could do other than praise her. She 
was pious, and kept her house excellently, being 
economical and energetic, mild and earnest, and 
endowed with high intelligence. 
Such was the home from which Linnaeus came, 
and therefore his gratitude to his parents and his 
remembrance of his happy childhood in that dear 
home never waned. In after years, in his printed 
writings, and intimate letters to his brother, sisters 
and kinsfolk he gave free utterance to his feelings. 
He referred with emotion to “ our parents’ tears for 
their children passed up above the clouds, and stayed 
not till they came into God’s presence, who cared for 
their welfare.” With a touch of melancholy he 
recalled how “ it commonly happens that the young 
ones, hatched in the same nest, fly away as soon as 
fledged, each in its own direction, which they seldom 
leave together from the same tree,” and that “ fate 
had been gracious to his brother and sisters, that they 
were vouchsafed to dwell together on their father’s 
land, whilst I [Linnaeus] was driven forth far from 
my kinsfolk, to live alone as a stranger.” More than 
once in after life, he refers to Stenbrohult in his 
frequent blending of Swedish and Latin, as his “ ljuva 
natale ”—sweet birthplace. Assuredly it deserved 
that love, for no fairer spot for the training of a 
naturalist could be found than in this broken country 
of hill and dale, mixed woodland and a delightful 
lake, where deciduous trees grew with pine and fir, 
and scarce plants throve round the paths. 
During Linnaeus’s tenderest years he was, through 
his parents, awakened to pleasure in nature, which 
lasted during the whole of his life. Both cherished 
a strong love for flowers, especially his father, in 
whose relations it seems to have been characteristic. 
His uncle and benefactor, Sven Tiliander, whom he 
often visited, had travelled in Germany, and devoted 
himself to gardening, and at Bremen had laid out a 
