144 
LINN/EUS 
by advice of Gronovius, he decided to make an 
attempt by letter, craving the favour of an audience. 
This succeeded beyond expectation; after a weeks 
waiting, the great Boerhaave received him with great 
kindness and wrote in his “ brief ” as follows : 
SIMPLEX VERI SIGILLUM. 
EX VOTO CLARI NOBILISQUE 
VIRI 
CAROLI LINNTlI 
scripsi 
FAUSTISSIMOS El DEM LABORUM DURISSIMORUM EXITUS 
PRECATUS 
H. BOERHAAVE. 
Leijd^e, 17 f 35. 
A fabulous account was published that Linnaeus 
gained admission by sending a copy of his “ Systema,” 
but as the above was written on the 5th July, and the 
printing of it did not begin till the nth of the same 
month, and ended on the 13th December, it is mani¬ 
fest that this account is entirely false. 
A few days after this, they met again in Boer- 
haave’s arboretum, “ a paradise, Holland’s miracle, 
whose like no mortal can imagine,” and in the walks 
round it, Linnaeus was able to show his insight in 
botany and its literary history. An old tradition, 
which is not intrinsically unlikely, and is to some 
extent supported by Linnaeus’s own words, exempli¬ 
fies an episode from this remarkable meeting. In 
the garden stood, it is said, a tree which Boerhaave 
regarded as a rarity, that had not yet been described 
by any naturalist. To his complete astonishment 
Linnaeus declared that it was well known to him, and 
that it grew abundantly in Sweden; further, it was 
not only not undescribed, but was included by Vail- 
lant in his great “Botanicon Parisiense” as “Crataegus 
folio subrotundo laciniato et serrato.” This Boerhaave 
