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him hints as to the proper manner of studying plants, and directed his attention to Tournefort's system of arrangement, which was founded on the differences in the flowers.
He proceeded to the university of Lund in 1727, bearing a dubiously worded testimonium from Nils Krok, the rector of the gymnasium, to the effect that shrubs in a garden may disappoint the cares of the gardener, but if transplanted into different soil may prosper, therefore the bearer was sent to the university, where, perchance, he might find a more propitious climate. His former preceptor Hök kept back this doubtful recommendation, and presented Linnæus to the rector and dean as his own private pupil, thus procuring his matriculation.
Whilst studying here, Linnæus lodged at the house of Dr Kilian Stobæus, afterwards professor of medicine, and physician to the king, who possessed an excellent museum of minerals, shells, birds, and dried plants; the methods of preservation here adopted were as a revelation to the young student, and taught him how to prepare his own acquisitions. Stobæus suffered greatly from ill-health, he was also lame, and one-eyed; but he was an amiable and extremely able man, having a large practice among the wealthier classes in the province of Skåne. Linnæus was sometimes called upon to assist the physician by writing the prescriptions, but as he wrote a bad hand, he was frequently sent away again. In those days physicians wrote legibly.
A German student named Koulas also lodged with Stobæus, and amongst the indulgences he enjoyed was that of access to the library of his landlord; with his fellow-student Linnæus formed a close friendship, and in return for instruction in the physiology which Linnæus had learned of Dr Rothman, Koulas supplied him with volumes from the book-shelves of Stobæus, which were read by him stealthily at night. The mother of Stobæus, who was old and wakeful, noticed that there was constantly a light in Linnæus a room, and, being afraid of fire, desired her son to reprimand the young man for his carelessness. Two nights afterwards, Stobæus went into Linnæus's chamber at eleven o'clock, expecting to find him asleep, but was astonished to find him poring over books. He was forced to confess whence these were obtained, and was at once ordered to bed; but the next morning, being further questioned, he was granted full liberty to use the library, and perfect familiarity was accorded by the doctor, who, having no children, held out hopes of making the young student his heir.
Whilst botanizing in the spring of 1728, Linnæus was attacked by what he considered to be a venomous animal, afterwards named by him Furia infernalis, in allusion to the torment and danger he suffered from it; after his recovery, he passed the summer at his father's house in Småland. Here he again met Rothman, who strongly advised him to quit Lund and to go to Upsala, where he would find greater facilities for the prosecution of his medical studies, and possibly obtain some scholarship to eke out his scanty means. Linnæus adopted his patron's advice, and started for Upsala with a sum of £8 sterling, that being all he was to expect from his parents. At this seat of learning his slender funds were soon exhausted; being young and unknown, he found no means of earning money by lecturing or teaching; he became dependent on chance generosity for a meal, and had to repair his shoes with folded paper. He could not well return to Lund, for Stobæus had taken offence at his departing without consulting him; and, besides, the journey required money which he did not possess.
In the autumn of this year, 1729, Linnæus was engaged intently examining some plants growing in the academical garden, when a venerable clergyman asked him what he was studying, whether he understood botany, whence he came, and how long he had been busied in the study. After being questioned at length, he was requested to follow his companion home; there he discovered him to be Dr Olaf Celsius, professor of theology, at that time working at his Hierobotanicon, which saw the light nearly twenty years later. When the professor saw Linnæus's collections he was still more impressed, and, finding him necessitous, he offered him board and lodging; he afterwards admitted him to close intimacy, and allowed him the free use of his rich library. The temporary adjunctus of the faculty of medicine being incompetent, Linnæus, by the recommendation of Celsius, was able to get some private pupils, and thereby to assume a more creditable appearance.
At this time there was only one medical student who distinguished himself by diligence in study, and that was Peter Arctedius, who afterwards styled himself Artedi. A close friendship sprang up between the two young men; they studied in concert, and vied with each other in their attainments, with perfect good temper, though of very diverse dispositions. Linnæus was sovereign in ornithology, entomology, and botany, Artedi reserving to himself the umbelliferous plants, fishes, and amphibia. A silence, almost total, prevailed in the university at this time on topics of natural history; during his whole curriculum Linnæus did not hear a single public lecture delivered on anatomy, botany, or chemistry.
During this period of intense receptivity, he came upon a critique which ultimately led to the establishment of his artificial system of plant classification. This was a review of Vaillant's Sermo de Structura Florum, Leyden, 1718,[1] a thin quarto in French and Latin; it set him upon examining the stamens and pistils of flowers, and, becoming convinced of the paramount importance of these organs, he formed the idea of basing a system of arrangement upon them. Another work by Wallin, (
Greek characters), sive Nuptiæ Arborum Dissertatio, Upsala, 1729, having fallen into his hands, he drew up a short treatise on the sexes of plants, and showed it to Dr Celsius, who put it into the hands of the younger Olaf Rudbeck, at that time professor of botany in the university. In the following year Rudbeck, whose advanced age compelled him to lecture by deputy, appointed Linnæus his adjunctus; in the spring of 1730, therefore, the latter began his lectures, and was accompanied by many pupils on his botanical excursions. The academic garden was entirely remodelled under his auspices, and furnished with many rare species, he being now in a position to direct the gardener, whereas in the year before he had actually solicited appointment to the vacant post of gardener, which was refused him on the ground of his capacity for better things.
His evenings were now devoted to the preparation of his epoch-making books, which were issued several years afterwards in the Netherlands. His position at the university having become unpleasant, he readily undertook to explore the little known country of Lapland, at the cost of the Academy of Sciences of Upsala. He started thence on May 12, 1732 o.s., carrying all his luggage on his back, journeying at first on horseback along the road skirting the coast to Umea, thence by boat up the river to Lyksele within the Arctic Circle, penetrating to what he terms Olycksmyran (i.e., the unlucky marsh) in spite of the melting of the ice, which made travelling in that part almost impossible. Unable to penetrate farther into the interior, he returned to Umeå, still skirting the sea-shore by Piteå to Luleå. From this latter place he made a long excursion to the north-west by Jockmock and Qvickjock;
- ↑ This work has a serious mistake on both title pages; it is corrected in the errata, but the correction seems to have escaped the notice of every bibliographer.
