A General View of the Writings of Linnæus. By Richard Pulteney, M. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 75. Payne.

TH

HE great genius and comprehenfive talents of the celebrated philofopher, whofe writings form the subject of this work, muft render an account of whatever concerns him highly interesting to all the lovers of natural science. We are, therefore, glad to find that the author of the present volume has intermixed with the General View fome memoirs of this illuftrious profeffor. Dr. Pulteney's principal defign, however, is to exhibit a detail of Linnæus's writings, in the order in which they were published; and the biographical anecdotes are introduced only for the fake of connexion, or to relieve the tedioufnefs which would arife from an uninterrupted recital of the author's various publications. For the fatisfaction of those who are unacquainted with the history of this immortal Swede, the father of modern botany, we fhall present them with a few particulars of his life.

Charles Von Linnè, the fon of a Swedish divine, was born May 24, 1707, at Roefhult, in the province of Smaland, in Sweden; of which place his father had the cure, when this fon was born, but was foon after preferred to the living of Stenbrihult, in the fame province, where dying in 174, at the age of 70, he was fucceeded in his cure by another fon. We are told, in the commemoration-speech on this celebrated man, delivered in his Swedish majefty's prefence, before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, that the ancestors of this family took their firnames of Linnæus, Lindelius, and Tiliander, from a large lime-tree, or linden-tree, yet ftanding on the farm where Linnæus was born; and that this origin of firnames, taken from natural objects, is not very uncommon in Sweden.

This eminent man, whofe talents enabled him to reform the whole fcience of natural hiftory, accumulated, very early in life, fome of the highest honours that await the most fuccessful proficients in medical fcience; fince we find that he was made profeffor of phyfic and botany, in the univerfity of Upfal, at the age of thirty-four; and fix years afterwards, phyfician to his fovereign, the late king Adolphus; who, in the year 1753, honoured him fill farther, by creating him knight of the order of the Polar Star. His honours did not terminate here, for in 1757, he was ennobled; and in 1776, the present king of Sweden accepted the refignation of his office, and rewarded his declining years by doubling his penfion, and by a liberal donation of landed property, fettled on him and his family.

It feems probable, that his father's example first gave Linnæus a taste for the study of nature; who, as he has himself informed us, cultivated, as his first amufement, a garden plentifully ftored with plants, Young Linnæus foon became ac

quainted

quainted with thefe, as well as the indigenous ones of his neighbourhood. Yet, from the ftraightnefs of his father's income, our young naturalift was on the point of being destined to a mechanical employment: fortunately, however, this defign was over-ruled. In 1717, he was fent to school at Wexfio, where, as his opportunities were enlarged, his progress in all his favourite pursuits was proportionably extended. At this early period he paid attention to other branches of natural history; particularly to the knowlege of infects: in which, as is manifeft from his oration on the fubject, he muft very early have made a great proficiency, fince we find that he was not lefs fucIcefsful herein, than in that of plants, having given them an arrangement, and established fuch characters of diftinction, as have been univerfally followed by fucceeding entomologists.

The first part of his academical education, Linnæus received under profeffor Stobæus, at Lund, in Scania, who favoured his inclinations to the study of natural hiftory. After a refidence of about a year, he removed, in 1728, to Upfal. Here he foon contracted a clofe friendship with Artedi, a native of the province of Angermannia, who had already been four years a stuIdent in that university, and, like himself, had a frong bent to the study of natural history in general, but particularly to ichthyology. He was moreover well fkilled in chemistry, and not unacquainted with botany, having been the inventor of that distinction in umbelliferous plants, arifing from the differences of the involucrum. Emulation is the foul of improvement, and, heightened as it was in this inftance by friendship, proved a molt powerful incentive. These young men profecuted their Atudies together with uncommon vigor, mutually communicating their obfervations, and laying their plans, fo as to aflist each other in every branch of natural history and phyfic.

'Soon after his refidence at Upfal, our author was also happy enough to obtain the favour of feveral gentlemen of established character in literature. He was in a particular manner encouraged in the pursuit of his ftudies by the patronage of Dr. Olaus Celfius, at that time profeffor of divinity, and the restorer of natural history in Sweden; fince fo diftinguifhed for oriental learning, and more particularly for his Hierobotanicon, or Critical Differtations on the Plants mentioned in Scripture. This gentleman is faid to have given Linnæus a large share of his efteem, and he was fortunate enough to obtain it very early af ter his removal to Upfal. He was at that time meditating his Hierobotanicon, and being ftruck with the diligence of Linnæus, in defcribing the plants of the Upfal garden, and his extenfive knowlege of their names, fortunately for him, at that time involved in difficulties, from the narrow circumftances of his parents, Celfius not only patronized him in a general way, but admitted him to his houfe, his table, and his library. Under fuch encouragement, it is not ftrange that our author made a rapid progrefs, both in his ftudies, and the esteem, of the pro

feffors:

feffors: in fact, we have a very ftriking proof of his merit and attainments, inafmuch as we find, that after only two years refidence, he was thought fufficiently qualified to give lectures occafionally from the botanic chair, in the room of profefior Rudbeck.'

Linnæus was foon afterwards appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upfal, to make the tour of Lapland, with the view of exploring the natural hiftory of that arctic region. This tour had been made for the first time, by the elder Rudbeck, in 1695, at the command of Charles XI. but unfortunately, almost all the obfervations which that traveller had made, perished in the terrible fire at Upfal, in 1702. Linnæus fet out from Upfal, on this journey, about the middle of May, 1732; equally a ftranger to the language and to the manners of the Laplanders, and without any affociate. He even traverfed what is called the Lapland Defert; a tract of territory deftitute of villages, cultivation, or any conveniences, and inhabited only by a few ftraggling people.

In this diftrict, fays the biographer, he afcended a noted mountain called Wallevari, in fpeaking of which he has given us a pleasant relation of his finding a fingular and beautiful new plant (Andromeda tetragona) when travelling within the arctic. circle, with the fun in his view at midnight, in fearch of a Lapland hut. From hence he croffed the Lapland Alps into Fismark, and traverfed the fhores of the North fea as far as Sallero.

Thefe journies from Lula and Pitha, on the Bothnian gulph, to the north fhore, were made on foot, and our traveller was attended by two Laplanders; one his interpreter, and the other his guide. He tells us that the vigour and strength of thefe two men, both old, and sufficiently loaded with his baggage, excited his admiration, fince they appeared quite unhurt by their labour, while he himfelf, although young and robuft, was frequently quite exhaufted. In this journey he was wont to fleep under the boat with which they forded the rivers, as a defence against rain, and the gnats, which in the Lapland fummer are not lefs teazing than in the torrid zones. In defcending one of thefe rivers, he narrowly escaped perifhing by the overfetting of the boat, and loft many of the natural productions which he had collected.

Linnæus thus fpent the greater part of the fummer in examining this arctic region, and thofe mountains, on which, four years afterwards, the French philofophers fecured immortal fame to fir Ifaac Newton, At length, after having suffered incredible fatigues and hardfhips, in climbing precipices, paffing rivers in miferable boats, fuffering repeated viciffitudes of extreme heat and cold, and not unfrequently hunger and thirst; he returned to Tornoa in September.'

He

He arrived at Upfal in November, after having performed, and that mostly on foot, a journey of ten degrees of latitude in extent, exclufive of the many deviations which the accomplishment of his defign rendered neceffary. The refult of this journey was not published till feveral years afterwards; but he loft no time in prefenting the Academy with a catalogue of the plants which he had discovered; which, even fo early as that period, he arranged according to the fyftem fince denominated the fexual.

In 1733, we find this great naturalift vifiting and examining the feveral mines in Sweden; where he formed his first fketch of his Syftem on Mineralogy, which appeared in the early editions of the Syftema Natura, but was not exemplified until the year 1768.

The next incident in the hiftory of this celebrated perfon, was his being fent, with several other naturalifts, by the governor of Dalekarlia, into that province, to investigate its natural productions. After accomplishing the purpofe of this expedition, he refided fome time in the capital of Dalekarlia, where he taught mineralogy, and the docimaftic art, and practifed. phyfic. In 1735, he travelled over many other parts of Denmark and Germany, and fixed in Holland, where he chiefly refided until his return to Stockholm, about the year 1739. Soon after he had fixed his refidence at this place, he married one of the daughters of Dr. More, a physician at Fahlun, in Dalekarlia, with whom he became acquainted during his stay in that town.

In 1735, the year in which he took the degree of doctor in phyfic, he published the firft sketch of his Syftema Naturæ, in the form of tables only., It thence appears, as the biogra pher obferves, that, before he was twenty, four years old, he laid the bafis of that great ftructure which he afterwards raised, and which will perpetuate his fame, to the latest ages of botanical fçience.

In 1736, Linnæus vifited England, where he formed many friendships with men at that time diftinguifhed for their know ledge in natural hiftory: but though Boerhaave had furnished him with letters of recommendation to fir Hans Sloane, we are told, that he met not with that reception which he had reafon to expect. For this treatment, Dr. Pulteney, with great probability, affigns, the following caufe.

Dr. Boerhaave's letter to fir Hans Sloane, on this occafion, is preferved in the British Mufcum, and runs thus Linnæus qui has tibi dabit literas, eft unice dignus te videre, unice dignus te videri qui vos videbit, fimul, videbit hominum par, ei fimile vix dabit orbis."-This encomium, howfoever quaintly

ex

expreffed, yet was in fome meafure prophetic of Linnæus's fu turę fame and greatnefs, and proves how intimately Boerhaave had penetrated into the genius and abilities of our author; and, ftrained as this parallel might be thought, it is likely however that the opening of the fexual fyftem, fo different from Ray's, by which fir Hans Sloane had always known plants, and particularly the innovations, as they were then called, which Linnæus had made in altering the names of fo many genera, were rather the cause of that coolness with which he was received by our excellent naturalift. Probably we have reafon to regret this circumftance; for otherwife Linnæus might have obtained an eftabliment in England, as it has been thought he withed to have done; and doubtlefs his opportunities in this kingdom. would have been much more favourable to his defigns, than in thofe arctic regions where he spent the remainder of his days. In the mean time, we may jufly infer the exalted idea that Linnæus had of England, as a land eminently favourable to the improvement of fcience, from that compliment which, in a letter to a friend, he afterwards paid to London, when, fpeaking of that city, he called it, "Punctum faliens in vitello orbis."

In 1738, this great naturalift made an excurfion to Paris, where he had the infpecting the Herbaria of the Juffieus, at that time the first botanifts in France; and alfo the botanical collections of Surian and Tournefort. He intended going thence to Germany, to vifit Ludwig, and the celebrated Haller, with whom he maintained a clofe correfpondence; but he was obliged to return to Holland without enjoying this pleafure.

Dr. Pulteney then proceeds to give an account of the feveral fcientific productions which Linnæus published previous to this time. Thefe are, the Syftema Nature, Fundamenta Botanica, Bibliotheca Botanica, and Genera Plantarum. The last of thofe is juftly confidered as the most valuable of all the works of this celebrated author. What immense application had been bestowed upon it, the reader may easily conceive, on being informed, that, before the publication of the first edition, the author had examined the characters of eight thousand flowers. The laft book of Linnæus's compofition, published during his ftay in Holland, was the Claffes Plantarum; which is a copious illustration of the fecond part of the Fundamenta.

About the latter end of 1738, or the beginning of the sub. fequent year, Linnæus returned to his native country where he fettled as a physician, at Stockholm. It is said, that at first he met with confiderable oppofition, and was oppreffed with many difficulties; but at length he furmounted all, and acquired extenfive practice. The intereft of count Teffin, who became his zealous patron, procured him the rank of phyfician