Linnaeus

Linnaeus, Carolus, or Karl von Linnb (1707-1778), the great Swedish botanist, who founded the artificial system of classifying plants, which has been superseded by the natural system of Jussieu (q.v.), was born at Roshult and educated at the grammar school and gymnasium of Wexid. His taste for botany speedily' showed itself, and was encouraged at the university of Lund. He moved to Upsala (1758), and undertook the management of the botanic garden and became the assistant of Rudbeck. He next went to and studied in Lapland, the result being his Flora Bapponiea, (1735). He took his M.D. degree at the university of Harderwyk, in Holland, in 1735, and then proceeded to Leyden. After visiting England (1736) and Paris (1738), he settled at Stockholm as a physician. In 1741 he became Professor of Medicine, and then of Botany and Natural History. He was made Knight of the Polar Star, with the rank of nobility. His principal works were Sj/stema Natures and Fundamenta Botanica (1735), Genera Plantarum (1737), Classes Plantarum (1738), Flora Succica (1745), Fauna Succica (1746), Philosophia Botanica (1751), Species Plantarum (1753).