LINNÆUS (Swed. ),ædiaLinnæ Carl von, a Swedish
naturalist, born near Stenbrohult, in the province
of Smaland, May 24, 1707, died in Upsal, Jan. 10, 1778. His father, the Protestant minister of the parish of Stenbrohult, was a lover of flowers, and in the well stocked garden of the rectory young Linnæus passed his leisure hours, familiarizing himself almost as soon as he could articulate distinctly with the names of the plants to be found there, as well as those indigenous to the neighborhood. Notwithstanding this manifest predilection for botany, his father, whose circumstances were far from easy, designed him for the ministry, and at 10 years of age Carl was sent to the academy at Wexiö. Here he read with eagerness whatever works on physical science, and particularly on natural history, came within his reach, but made such limited progress in the studies applicable to his intended profession, that the teachers, conceiving a contempt for his intellectual abilities, advised his father to make a carpenter or tailor of him. Fortunately, Dr. Rothmann, a physician of Wexiö, who had noticed his enthusiasm for botany, prevailed on the father to allow him to study medicine and natural history; he received the boy into his own house, and instructed him in physiology, and in botany according to the system of Tournefort. In 1727 he went to the university of Lund, where for a year he was an inmate of the family of Dr. Stobæus, professor of physic and botany, with whose approbation he finally surrendered his whole time to the study of botany. Following the advice of Rothmann, he went in 1728 to the university of Upsal in the hope of finding some kind of employment there. In this he was disappointed, and he was obliged to return to the study of medicine. His situation now became pitiable in the extreme; for months he was frequently in want of food and clothing, and the lectures of Rudbeck, the professor of botany, tormented him with the desire to resume his favorite study. One day during this season of destitution he was observed by Dr. Olaf Celsius, professor of divinity, intently examining a plant in the university garden, and upon being questioned answered with so much readiness and intelligence that he received a proposal from Celsius to assist him in a work on the plants mentioned in Scripture. At the same time he became an inmate of the professor's