222 
LINNAEUS 
a trip to Drottningholm [a palace near Stockholm], I 
now have my chief lectures, public, private and most 
private, the last to Danes, Russians, Germans, and 
others, who come hither from distant parts to listen 
to me.” And during the holidays when his colleagues 
were enjoying entire quiet at watering places to 
restore their health, he was writing in 1771, when he 
had completed his sixty-fourth year: “ I am in 
obscurity at Hammarby, but have to lecture eight 
hours a day to my foreigners, and more, if it 
rains. 
ust as his pupils took home pleasant memories, 
so did their teacher retain similar recollections. An 
exception must be made in the case of the first who 
came, Henri Missa, from Paris, who, provided with a 
recommendatory letter from Haller, in August, 1748, 
found himself listening to Linnaeus in botany. This 
event caused great attention, for never before had a 
student come from France to Uppsala University. 
He was received with open arms, and was thus 
described: “ Missa is fairly quick, and has an incredible 
temper. He is poor, does us no credit, but one must 
teach him so that others may follow. He is here for 
a year. I have boarded him, which sum I reckon at 
600 dalers [^45], in addition to advancing him money; 
I shall not spare my instruction.” 
By the beginning of the next year there was a 
change in Missa’s behaviour. After a visit to Stock¬ 
holm, he declared that botany should no longer detain 
him, and he would go back to France. He attacked 
Linne, who wrote, “ He boarded with me for two days 
and since then I have not seen him. He repaid me 
the money I lent him, but went away without any 
thanks for the long period I had maintained him, when 
I had done more for him than a brother or a Swede, 
and now he slanders me, as I have heard from several 
people. So I harboured a snake in my bosom, but 
did not know it.” Thus happened the unfortunate 
parting between them, to Linne a great trouble; and 
