So, here we are in Uppsala. Drawn here largely by Carolus Linnaeus who invented the botanical system of classification for minerals, plants and animals. First name for the genus, the second for the species, as in Homo Sapiens, the wise man, or the knowing man.
An inspirational professor, he packed his students around the world to return with botanical samples; they even joined Captain Cook’s expedition to Australia. Linnaeus joined and financed some of the earliest plant-collecting expedition to the Arctic, and we were thrilled to see these rare plants in his garden.
We thoroughly enjoyed the garden–especially since, thanks to Linnaeus, we could identify the plants. As plant lovers who love travelling, we make a point of learning the Latin names as well as the common names of plants we grow and interesting plants we encounter, so that botanical gardens everywhere are equally interesting–even when the common names are in Swedish!!
Linnaeus had a sense of humour–naming a small and insignificant weed after one of his critics. He started his botanical walks through his gardens early each morning, in his nightshirt, to the astonishment of his students. “Nature does not wait for powder and wig,” he’d explain.
A Swedish saying, “God created, Linnaeus organized.”
Organization is in fact a much valued and dominant Swedish trait!
Linnaeus had a sense of humour–naming a small and insignificant weed after one of his critics. He started his botanical walks through his gardens early each morning, in his nightshirt, to the astonishment of his students. “Nature does not wait for powder and wig,” he’d explain.
A Swedish saying, “God created, Linnaeus organized.”
Organization is in fact a much valued and dominant Swedish trait!
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