GO 
LINNAEUS 
he spent Christmas and the January following in the 
home of his parents. On the 2nd February he went 
to Lund to see his dear Stobaeus, and to inform him¬ 
self in mineralogical matters. This visit proved to 
be negative in results, for Stobaeus’s method did not 
agree with Linnaeus’s ideas, and his collection, con¬ 
sisting mostly of fossils, was of no value for the 
intended journey. He therefore returned to Sten- 
brohult (arriving on the 14th February), and stayed 
there till the end of the following month. How he 
occupied himself is unknown, except that he wrote 
his “ Adonis Stenbrohultensis,” and devoted himself 
to medical practice. Amongst those he attended were 
his mother, of whose illness he had received intelli¬ 
gence before leaving Uppsala, and his youngest 
sister, who was attacked by small-pox. He had the 
pleasure of seeing both restored to health. It is pre¬ 
sumed that he consulted his parents as to his intended 
journey, perhaps also employing a good deal of time 
in resting after the last year’s forced labour. 
By the end of March spring seemed to have come 
to Stenbrohult, whereupon Linnaeus hastened to 
Uppsala, where he arrived on the 1st April, but 
found severe wintry weather prevailing. This was 
not the only misreckoning which there awaited him; 
a more serious one was that nothing had been settled 
as to his Lapland journey. Since his application to 
the Royal Society of Science had been sent in, at 
least five meetings had been held, at which both of 
Linnaeus’s benefactors (Rudbeck and Celsius) were 
present, but not a word was spoken about any support 
to Linnaeus for his intended journey, judging from the 
silence of the minutes. He was therefore compelled 
to send in a new application on the 14th of April, 
wherein he recalls his previous letter for permission 
for a journey to Lapland, in the ensuing summer, to 
elucidate its natural history. Probably because of 
what he gleaned from private information, he reduced 
his request for pecuniary help to 450 or at least 400 
