Linnaeus, CARL, ennobled in 1757 as CARL VON LINNÉ, the founder of modern botany, was born at Råshult, in the Swedish province of Småland, on 23d May 1707. His father, the rector of the parish, destined him for his own profession, the church. But whilst still a child Carl showed a passion for flowers. He was sent to school at Wexiö, then passed on to Lund (1727) and Upsala universities to study medicine; but his real study was botany. In 1730 he was appointed assistant to the professor of botany in Upsala. The greater part of 1732 was occupied in executing a commission from the Upsala Academy of Sciences—an exploring trip through Swedish Lapland, the botanical results of which were published as Flora Lapponica in 1737. His diary of this journey was translated into English and published by Sir J. E. Smith in 1811 as Lachesis Lapponica. Then followed a journey of scientific exploration and survey through the province of Dalecarlia. In 1735 he went abroad to take his doctor's degree at Harderwijk in Holland. Passing on to Leyden and Amsterdam, he found encouragement in Gronovius, to whom he showed the MS. of the Systema Naturæ, and helpful patronage in Boerhaave, who introduced him to the wealthy Dutch banker, Clifford. Clifford, who had a magnificent garden and greenhouses and botanical collections, employed the young Swede to arrange them for him. It was the autumn of 1737 before he was done with the work. But in the meantime he had paid a visit to England, and published some of his most famous books, such as the Systema Naturæ, Fundamenta Botanica, Genera Plantarum, Critica Botanica, in which he expounded his celebrated system of classification, based on differences in sexual characteristics. This system of Linnaeus, although intentionally an artificial one, was predominant for a long time in the botanical schools of Europe (see BOTANY). On his way home he was tempted to stay nearly a year at Leyden to help to arrange the botanical garden belonging to the university. Then he paid a flying visit to Paris, where he became acquainted with Bernard and Joseph de Jussieu. On reaching home he practised as a physician in Stockholm for three years with brilliant success. In 1741 he was appointed professor of Physics and Anatomy at Upsala, but exchanged this chair for that of Botany in the following year. With this post was combined the directorship of the botanical gardens. During the many years that Linnaeus taught botany his fame and his lectures increased the number of pupils attending the university from five to fifteen hundred. The years 1745-46 were marked by the publication of the Flora Suecica and Fauna Suecica, the latter embodying the results of fifteen years' labour; 1751 by the Philosophia Botanica; and 1753 by the appearance of Species Plantarum, in which he first fully established the custom of using a second or trivial name in addition to the generic name, by which to identify a plant. Just previous to his appointment as professor he conducted a scientific journey through the islands of Öland and Gothland, in 1746 a similar journey through the province of West Gothland, and in 1749 another in the province of Skåne, of all of which he wrote descriptive accounts in Swedish. Linnaeus died on 10th January 1778. See Through the Fields with Linnaeus, by Mrs Florence Caddy (2 vols. 1887), which supersedes the Life (Eng. trans. 1794) by Stoever.
The LINNEAN SOCIETY was formed in London in 1788, and obtained a royal charter in 1802. Its founder and first president was Sir J. E. Smith, who purchased the books and MSS. and botanical collections of Linnaeus after the death in 1783 of the great botanist's son, and from whom they passed into the hands of the society in 1828.