Latin Garden Names – Species Plantarum

In the long history of plant science, no name is more famous than that of Linnaeus and no book is more highly regarded than his “Species Plantarum,” published in 1753.

Who was Linnaeus? To what does he owe his fame? And why is the mention of his book on the species of plants worthy of notice?

Carl Linne (Linnaeus is the Latin form of the name) was born in 1707, the son of a country parson in south Sweden, and a love of flowers seems to have been instinctive with him. They were his first toys: when he was a noisy baby, he would at once become quiet if a flower were put into his hand. As a child of four, he went to a picnic with his father, who told the guests the names of various flowers they saw, and thereafter it was the lad’s great pleasure to learn more and more plant names. He little thought, we might be sure, that he was thus laying a foundation for his life’s work.

At school he was an average student, though especially good in Latin, the only language other than Swedish that he ever knew. But Latin was sufficient, as in those days it was the lingua f ranca of learned men in all countries. Plants were still his main interest, to the disappointment of his parents who had intended him for the church, and when he went on to the University of Uppsala it was to study medicine and botany, which then went hand in hand. Except for the little money his parents could give him, he had to work his way, and a hard way it was until eased by scholarships and the kindness of professors who gave board and room to so promising a young man.

When only 25, Linnaeus was selected by the Academy of Sciences to survey Lapland, the bleak northern area of Sweden and Norway. There he traveled over 4,000 miles in conditions of hardship but with