172 
LINNAEUS 
astonished him by conversing in Swedish. An inti¬ 
mate friendship was formed with V. La Serre, a 
physician and naturalist, and a close friend of the 
Jussieus. Special value was attached to his intro¬ 
duction to a lady, the clever Mile. Madelaine Fran- 
^oise Basseporte, who had a situation in the botanic 
garden as botanic painter to the King, although con¬ 
versation must have been difficult, as Linnaeus spoke 
no French, and she neither Latin nor Swedish. 
Naturally Linnaeus did not neglect to see the most 
notable things in Paris, such as Versailles and the 
neighbourhood, but most of the time was given to 
scientific employments. Linnaeus went oyer the fine 
botanic garden to see the herbaria of the Jussieus, 
Tournefort, Vaillant, Surian, and others, with 
d’Isnard’s great collection of botanic books, where he 
found so many unknown to him, that he saw he could 
bring out a new edition of “ Bibliotheca botanica,” 
with twice as many titles as his former one. He also 
took part in B. de Jussieu’s excursions with students, 
and tradition relates an episode during one of them. 
The students played the joke (though it seldom suc¬ 
ceeded) of asking Jussieu to name plants from mutil¬ 
ated or artificially made-up specimens from bits of 
different plants—applied to the foreign botanist to 
name a strange plant, but he, taking the opportunity 
to pay a compliment to his French friend, referred 
the students to him by saying it must either be God 
or Jussieu who could name it. Special enjoyment 
came from a trip to Fontainbleau at Jussieu’s expense, 
when La Serre was of the party. During this trip, 
which lasted several days, he saw the rarest plants in 
France, and amongst them nearly all Vaillant’s 
figured orchids in full flower. 
A very pleasant and flattering surprise was pre¬ 
pared for him during his Paris visit. On the 24th 
June Linnaeus was the guest of President Du Fay at 
the Academie des Sciences. After the meeting, he 
was requested to wait a little, and then he was in- 
