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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Linnaeus was a “natural philosopher” (the word “scientist” was not coined until the 1830s). Like other natural philosophers, he had broad interests, so to write this book, I turned to specialists in many fields—botany, science history, zoology, wildlife pathology, ethnology, geology, even glaciology. I am thrilled to thank them all for being part of my hunt for the real Carl Linnaeus, for generously sharing insights and answering questions, and to several for careful critical review of my manuscript. Any mistakes that remain are my own.
I am most especially grateful to Gunnar Broberg, Lund University, for his thoughtful observations and encouragement, and Ingvar Svanberg, Uppsala University, for emails packed with information, and even translated passages.
Jesper Kårehed, scientific curator of the Linnaean Gardens, helped me imagine Linnaeus in his gardens. Isabelle Charmantier, head of collections at the Linnean Society of London, showed me Linnaeus’s marginalia and note cards. Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Exeter, shared his expertise, including perspectives on Linnaeus’s paper technologies. Charlie Jarvis, Natural History Museum of London, helped parse botanical particulars. Bengt Jonsell, Uppsala University, fine-tuned the chart of plant classes.
Carl George, Union College, Schenectady, New York, and Christine Cameron inspire me with their contagious curiosity. Charlotte Tancin at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, tracked down answers and experts, and allowed me to handle (while wearing protective cotton gloves) books that belonged to Linnaeus and letters he wrote and sealed with his red wax stamp. Doug Holland and staff gave me a tour of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s fascinating rare books collection, a place to stay, and a link to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
In Sami, it’s giitu. Thank you to Marie Enoksson, communications officer for the Sami Parliament of Sweden, for her helpful review of the Sápmi chapter; Janet S. Anderson, who translated Linnaeus’s dissection report; pathologists Kevin Hynes and Joe Okoniewski, who allowed me to observe their necropsy of a raccoon; Torbjörn Lindell, Växjö science teacher, who knows all about Linnaeus’s student days; Rev. Dr. Trygve Skarsten, who explained Scandinavian church history; Inger Herland, Stavanger, Norway archive, who translated trial records; and a trio of wonderful women who helped hunt down one important image: Christine Constantine, Frederica Freer, and Gerda Rossel.
Thank you to Mikael Ahlund, Christina Backman (who convinced me there was a different side to Sara Lisa), Eva Björn, Lynda Brooks, Maria Buhl, Enrico Coen, Andrea Deneau, Gina Douglas, Daniel Douglass (for emailing me about glaciers while standing on one in Iceland), Rebecca Flodin, Anthea Gentry, Håkan Håkansson, Andrea Hart, Marika Hedin, Esther Jackson, Jeannette McDevitt, Steve McLoughlin, Emil V. Nilsson, Eva Nyström, Jeanne L. Osnas, Annika Windahl Pontén, Paula Ivaska Robbins, Mary Sears (for help from the Harvard Library, above and beyond), Jennie Erin Smith (for her generous long-term loan of IK Foundation books), Angela Todd (who kept things light with Linnaean limerick writing) and Vivi Vajda (for reviewing the geology section); as well as scholars from the international C18-L listserv on the Long Eighteenth Century and the Linnaean Correspondence Project.
The world is a better place thanks to teachers who introduce children to nature—including Theresa Akerley, Alan Fiero, Jean Quattrocchi, and Yusuf Abdul-Wasi Burgess—and librarians who eagerly share their love of nonfiction, as my mother did.
My writing group by the sea is a talented crew, encouraging but demanding, serious but often side-splittingly funny: Deirdre Callanan, Pauline Grocki, Penny Haughwort, Maureen Hourihan, Sara Pennypacker, Ginny Reiser, and Jack Harrison. I am happy that my world includes terrific friends who give brilliant advice: Ann Foley, Connie Kintner, Steve Sheinkin, and Jennifer Armstrong.
Now to the publishing world. I am profoundly grateful to my extraordinary editor, Simon Boughton, who saw what this book could be before I did. He guided me in finding the right structure, then used his editorial superpowers on the result. Editorial assistant Kristin Allard (who is always sunshine), copyeditor Allegra Huston (who is always right), and the whole Norton team—William Willis, Rebecca Homiski, Tiani Kennedy, Jen Montgomery, Yang Kim—turned it into such a beautiful book. Heartfelt thanks to my agent, Susan Cohen, who believed in this project from the start and knew just how to shepherd it. Thank you all.
Special thanks go to my shared sister Patty, John and the ever-growing Figliozzi family for loving care and comedy.
And of course, my family, my favorite Homo sapiens. How lucky I am. My daughters and their husbands—Kim and Patrick, Kirsten and Dane—inspire and impress me every day. That they care deeply about the environment and the future of wild places keeps me filled with hope. The love in my parents’ greenhouse and garden grows on in them. And Jim, by my side when I first set foot in Linnaeus’s garden and ever since, you are my rock, my panini maker, my best friend, my favorite forester. You had me at Acer saccharum.
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Note: Page numbers in italics indi
cate illustrations.
Adanson, Michel, 161
animal kingdom, 167-168, 111–14, 112, 113
See also human vs. animal
apes. See monkeys and apes
Arctic adventure, 57–79
beginning the mission, 58–59
boating and hiking, 61–65, 64
courting Sara Lisa, 78–79
on horseback, 59–61
leaving Uppsala, 78
returning from, 74–78
Sami people, 58, 61–78, 62, 69, 70, 74, 76, 84
Sápmi region (Lapland), 57–58, 65, 136
Scandinavian Mountains, 65, 66, 67–69, 70, 71
Artedi, Peter, 46–47, 55–56, 103–5, 105–6
banana plant, 91–102
Amsterdam life, 91–92
book on, 100–101
challenge of the, 93–100, 94, 99, 101–2
estate and greenhouses, 92–95
origins of, and naming, 100–101
Banks, Joseph, 206
bats, classifying, 173–74, 174
binomial classification, 140, 142, 143–45, 146, 150
Bontius, Jacob, 180–81
botanical and scientific terms glossary, 235–36
botany principles, 105
Brodersonia, Christina (mother), 32, 34–36, 50
Browallius, Johan, 159
Burman, Johannes, 92–93, 95, 98
Celsius, Anders, 96–97, 145
Celsius, Olof, 47–49, 49, 145, 151
classification of animals. See animal kingdom; human vs. animal
classification of plants, 117, 128
See also natural world; plant names
Clifford, George, 92–97, 94, 99, 100
Colden, Cadwallader, 126
Colden, Jane, 126–28, 127
Collinson, Peter, 18, 127–28, 144–45
Cook, James, 204–6, 205, 213
criticism of Linnaeus, 119, 122–23, 167, 168–69, 176–77
Cuvier, Georges, 186
Darwin, Charles, 186–87, 225
Ehret, Georg Dionysus, 95–96, 123, 124, 217, 222
explorers. See Arctic adventure; student explorers
fact vs. fiction, 80–90
“cabinets of curiosities,” 82, 83
determining, 83–85
malaria thesis, 90
Paradoxa, 85–87
sea monsters, including Kraken, 87–89, 88
seven-headed hydra, 80–82, 81, 85
family of Linnaeus
children, 134–35 (see also Linnaea, Lisa Stina; Linnaeus the Younger)
father, 22, 24, 26, 32, 33–34, 36, 137, 139
great-grandmother, 34–35
mother, 32, 34–36, 50
siblings, 26, 37
Swedish name tradition, 26
wife (see Moraea, Sara Lisa)
Franklin, Benjamin, 197–98, 199–200, 202
Fredrik, Adolf, 12, 27, 219
Fundamenta Botanica (Linnaeus), 105
gardens, 14, 22–26, 92–93, 221, 221–22
Genera Plantarum (Linnaeus), 123, 173
genus name, 142–43
Gmelin, Johann, 160
Hammarby farmhouse, 220–23, 221
Hartekamp estate, 92–93
human vs. animal, 163–87
animal classification revisions, 172–74, 173
animal kingdom, classifying, 166-69, 175-77, 180, 181
animal menagerie, observing, 182–85
animals, exotic, observing, 163–65, 164
binomials, assigning to animals, 150, 174–75
classification patterns, recognizing, 165–66
criticism of Linnaeus, 167, 168–69, 176–77
filling in the gaps, 177–79, 178
human species, defining and classifying, 167–69, 175–76, 180, 181
monkeys (pet), observing, 165, 170–71, 171, 183, 185, 185
monkeys and apes, classifying, 176–77
scientific theories, evolving, 186–87
sorting fact from fiction, 179–82
Humboldt, Alexander von, 203
humors, four, 35, 180
hybrid plant theory, 154–60
insects, studying, 208–10, 212, 227–28
Kalm, Pehr, 18, 21, 145, 197–204, 201, 203, 227
Klein, Jacob Theodor, 169
Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 186
Leclerc, Georges-Louis, 83, 172–73
linaria mutation. See peloria
Linnaea, Lisa Stina (daughter), 15, 134, 135, 204, 206, 222
Linnaeus, Carl Nilsson, 22–42
early education, 26–33
elder years of (see professor)
family names, 26–27, 27
medical profession, 33–36
notebook of, 28–31, 29, 36–37, 38
plant collection, organizing, 37–39, 38
plant theories, 39–42
pumpkin plant, 24–26, 25, 41–42, 117–18
summer house, 22–26, 23
See also family; Moraea, Sara Lisa (wife)
Linnaeus, Nils Ingemarsson (father), 22, 24, 26, 32, 33–34, 36, 137, 139
Linnaeus the Younger (son), Carl, 162, 206, 216, 224
Linnean Society of London, 225
Löfling, Pehr, 137, 139, 140, 206, 208
Mammalia order, 173
medical profession and practice, 34-35, 90, 132
mineral kingdom, 114–15
monkeys and apes
classifying, 176–77
observing, 163, 165, 170–71, 171, 183, 185, 185
Monson, Anne, 129
Moraea, Sara Lisa (wife)
children of, 134–35
Linnaeus courting, 78–79
marriage and house, 26–27, 132, 133, 183–84
as widow, 220, 224–25
Musa Cliffortiana (Linnaeus), 99, 100–101
mutation, linaria. See peloria
naming systems. See binomial classification; plant names
natural world, 103–29
animal kingdom, 111–14
botany, popularizing, 123, 125
classifying species, 106–8
criticism of system, 119, 122–23
friend Artedi, 103–6
mineral kingdom, 114–17
naming dilemma, 129–32
naming plants, 119, 122, 127–29
natural vs. artificial classification, 128
organizing, with charts, 108–11, 112–13
plant kingdom, 117–19, 118, 120–21, 124
scientific correspondence, 125–29
three kingdoms, 110–11, 112–13
peloria, 151–62
controversial theory, 154–60
linaria mystery, 151–56, 153
evolutionary ideas, 160–62
update on, 161
plant names, 130–50
binomial classification, 140, 142, 143–45, 146, 150
crisis of, 130–32
current changes in, 150
farm study, 135–37, 138, 139–40, 141
Linnaeus’s marriage and family, 132, 133, 134–35
Linnaeus’s return to Sweden, 132–33
name complexity, 133–34
name inspiration, 144–45
naming system, 146, 150
paper technology and storage, 147, 148, 148, 149
See also Species Plantarum
Primates class, 173–74, 176
the professor, 219–28
Hammarby farmhouse, 220–23, 221
Knighthood of the Polar Star, 27, 219, 223
legacy of Linnaeus, 226–28
life changes and death, 224
personal collections sold, 224–25
pumpkin plant, 24–26, 25, 41–42, 117–18
Ray, John, 39–40, 53–54
Rivinus, Augustus, 53, 54
Roberg, Lars, 44–45, 56
Rothman, Johan, 30–31, 33–34, 36, 39, 41, 43–44
Rudbeck the Younger, Olof, 44–45, 50, 52, 53, 132, 145
science vs. religion, 107–8, 116–17, 155, 157, 159, 162, 168–69, 176–77
scientific correspondence, 125–29, 225
scientific description, 109–10
Seba, Albertus, 80–81, 83, 104, 105–6
sexual reproduction, plant, 39–41, 119, 122
Siegesbeck, Johann, 122–23
Sjupp (pet raccoon), 11–21
classifying, 17–18
death and dissection of, 15–17
Linnaeus’s dream, 19–20
as mysterious pet, 11–15, 19
raccoon update, 21
Smith, James Edward, 225
species
book revisions of, 110–11
Creation beliefs on, 107–8, 155, 157, 159, 162
discovering other, 144–45, 177–79, 193–94
extinct human, 182
missing, 177–79
naming and describing, 109–10, 133, 142–43, 146, 150, 174–75
new species,160-162, 186-187
subdividing, 180
unreliable reports about, 179–82, 179
Species Plantarum (Linnaeus), 142–43, 150
student explorers, 188–218
an “army of botanists,” 188–91
Anders Sparrman, 213–16
Carl Peter Thunberg, 217, 218, 224–25
Christopher Tärnström, 195
Daniel Rolander, 188, 208–12, 208, 211
Daniel Solander, 204–6
Pehr Forsskål, 212–13
Pehr Kalm, 18, 21, 145, 197–204, 201, 203
Pehr Löfling, 206, 208
scientific expeditions, 193–96, 195
university lectures, 191–93
Systema Naturae (Linnaeus), 110–11, 149, 150, 160, 161, 172–76, 174, 175, 212
temperature, measuring, 96–97, 203
Thunberg, Carl Peter, 217, 218, 224–25
timeline, historical, 229–34
Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, 37–39, 38, 40–41, 53, 54, 117, 138
Tyson, Edward, 179, 181–82
Uppsala University, 43–56
Artedi friendship, 46–47, 55–56
botany demonstrations, 50, 55
classifying kingdoms, 55–56
enrolling in, and studies, 43–45, 44, 46, 51
leaving, 78
medical professors, 44–45, 49–50, 52, 53