At the age of four he showed a precocious interest in plants, an interest which seriously interfered with his studies when he went to school. When his father was about to remove him, a friend urged that the boy be fitted for the profession of medicine. Linnaeus entered the university at Lund in 1727, but in the following year transferred to Upsala. In 1732, at the expense of the Academy of Sciences, he explored Lapland. Later he made pilgrimages to many of the most eminent professors of Europe, returning to Stockholm in 1738. In 1736, he received his doctorate in Holland. After his marriage, in 1739, he was appointed professor at Upsala, where he continued his work in botany and established it on a rational basis. In 1750, he was named rector of the University. In 1757, he was granted nobility and adopted the name of von Linne. By the time he died in 1778, he was noted as one of the foremost botanists of his time, having discovered sex in plants and given his name to the famous botanical system of classification which is still used today. His works include Preludia Sponsaliarum Plantarum (1729), Systema Naturae (1738), Flora Suecica (1745), Fauna Suecica (1745), Philosophia botanica (1751) and Species Plantarum (1753). |
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