PREFACE 
By the late Professor T. M. Fries, in his “ Linne,” 1903. 
Amongst the Swedes there is hardly to be found 
anyone whose life and activity at home or abroad has 
been so often described as that of Carl von Linne. 
It may therefore be thought a wasted effort to put 
forward another biography, as much of it must be a 
repetition of well-known facts. 
It needed no long investigation to find with 
astonishment how much remained for elucidation and 
arrangement, and how imperfect and misleading are 
all Linnean biographies hitherto published. This 
was frankly admitted by Linne’s pupil, Dr. J. G. 
Acrel, in his address on relinquishing the presidency 
of the Academy of Science in August, 1796, and 
the lapse of more than a century has repeatedly 
emphasized the fact, that a new, comprehensive and 
accurate representation is needed, based upon investi¬ 
gation of our great countryman’s life and work, as a 
legitimate object and a dutiful testimony to his 
memory. 
The reason why no such account has hitherto been 
attempted, is due to the difficulties inseparably bound 
up with it; the chief difficulty being that the 
materials had to be gathered from a very wide field, 
and not from Sweden only. It is lamentable that 
Linne’s extensive and important correspondence, both 
home and foreign, and many of his manuscripts are 
now in England, with the Linnean library and collec¬ 
tions, to the delight of their purchaser and the shame 
of Sweden. In addition to these, letters and docu- 
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