Carl Linnaeus

Born: May 23, 1707; Råshult, Smâland, Sweden
Died: January 10, 1778; Uppsala, Sweden
Fields of study: Entomology, ornithology, systematics (taxonomy), zoology
Carolus Linnaeus became interested in botany and the natural sciences as a youth. He attended the University of Lund and the University of Uppsala, where he received his degree in medicine. In 1730, Linnaeus was appointed lecturer in botany. Two years later, the Uppsala Academy of Sciences gave Linnaeus the opportunity to conduct an extensive field trip in wild and virtually unexplored regions of Lapland. In 1736, Linnaeus visited England and Paris, where he met many distinguished botanists, including Sir Hans Sloane, Johann Jakob Dillenius, and the three Jussieu brothers. Linnaeus completed the Hortus Cliffortianus while in Holland and then returned to Sweden. In 1738, he established a very successful medical practice in Stockholm. In 1741, he was appointed to the chair of medicine at Uppsala. One year later he accepted the chair of botany. Linnaeus published the results of his exploration of Lapland in Amsterdam as the Flora Lapponica (1737). An English translation was published by Sir James Edward Smith as Lachesis Lapponica (1811). These publications brought Linnaeus to the attention of the scientific community, but his worldwide reputation was established by the Systema Naturae, or The Three Kingdoms of Nature Systematically Proposed in Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species (1735) and the Genera Plantarum (1737). The Species Plantarum, which provided a complete description of the specific names, was not published until 1753. The first edition of the Systema Naturae contained the basic principles of the Linnaean system, although Linnaeus revised the text many times to accommodate new information and ideas. Plants and animals were grouped into species, genus, order, class, and kingdom. The international scientific community generally accepted the first edition of the Species Plantarum (1753) and the fifth edition of the Genera Plantarum (1754) as the starting point for naming flowering plants and ferns. Although the Linnaean classification system is based mainly on flower parts and is not natural, in the sense called for by Aristotle, it was useful and efficient in a period in which thousands of new plant species were being discovered. Using the binomial system, botanists could quickly place a new plant into a named category. The binary nomenclature standardized by Linnaeus became the universally accepted method of naming plants and animals. Indeed, the simplicity and success of the Linnaean system made it difficult for scientists to replace it when more natural systems were subsequently proposed. Linnaeus thought that his work on the reproductive organs of plants was his major contribution to botany. His classification system organized plants into classes according to the number and character of the stamens; classes were divided into orders by the number and character of the pistils. Nevertheless, Linnaeus believed that the process of naming and classifying plants and animals was the most important aspect of biology and the essential foundation of science. In 1761, Linnaeus was granted a Swedish patent of nobility, which entitled him to be called Carl von Linné. When Linnaeus died in 1778, he was buried with the honors proper to royalty, but his widow later sold his collections and books to Sir James Edward Smith. The Linnean Society of London acquired these materials in 1829.