STUDENT YEARS 
51 
Of still greater economic gain was, that Linnaeus 
by living in Rudbeck’s house, had daily access to the 
excellent library there, and also opportunities for 
counsel and explanations from his learned and bene¬ 
volent principal. With ardent zeal he flung himself 
into his botanic and zoologic studies. Doubtless his 
duties as teacher came into conflict with his zeal for 
research, so that he experienced how precious time 
became when it must be applied to others, in order 
that the question of bodily requirements should be met. 
All went well however, the days were given to work 
with his pupils, and the nights to working out his new 
system and reform, which he was beginning in botany. 
To give a detailed account of all the botanic essays 
which at this and succeeding periods were written is 
hardly appropriate to our task. Enough to say that 
he now began his “ Bibliotheca botanica,” “ Classes 
plantarum,” “ Critica botanica ” and “ Genera plan- 
tarum,” every moment being thus spent so long as he 
was at Uppsala. Zoology also was not overlooked; 
the opportunity of steadily going through Rudbeck’s 
incomparably beautiful drawings of Swedish birds, 
gave him grounds for drawing up a new “ Methodus 
Avium sueticarum ” as well as “ Insecta Uplandica 
methodice digesta,” as objects for his labours. There 
is doubtless much truth in the statement made in his 
old age, that he had placed before his mind certain 
objectives before he was twenty-three years old, and 
had executed all before he came back to Sweden in 
I738 '. 
Linnaeus’s early effort, “ Sponsalia plantarum,” 
has already been mentioned. Partly due to his innate 
perception, partly perhaps to his great observation 
(called into being by his rapid work), his mental dis¬ 
position towards flowers was strengthened, especially 
with regard to their reproductive parts which 
demanded an accurate investigation. Gradually he 
was led to think about the subject of systematic 
arrangement—something which in his earliest efforts 
