Carl von Linné: biography of this Swedish naturalist

Known as the greatest taxonomist of all time, Carl von Linné's life is that of an explorer of his own country. Born into a family of Lutheran pastors, the young man did not want to dedicate himself to the family trade, putting his focus on science.

As if it were a discoverer of the New World, Carl von Linné was in charge of describing every plant, animal or even culture that was found around the dark forests of his Scandinavian nation, slowly elaborating the binomial classification system still used by the community today scientific.

Next we will discover the life of this peculiar Swedish botanist and naturalist, who well made his native Sweden the center of botanical and taxonomic studies, through a biography of Carl von Linné.

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Brief biography of Carl von Linné

Carl Nilsson Linnæus, known as Carl von Linné or Carlos Linnaeus, born 23 May 1707 in Råshult, Sweden. He was the son of Nils Ingemarsson, a Lutheran pastor with a passion for plants, and Christina Brodersonia, the daughter of a Protestant pastor.

early years

At the age of two he moved with his parents to Stenbronhult, a region located in the south of Sweden. characterized by being especially green and full of all kinds of plant species. There, his father began to structure and care for the garden of the local church, enriching it with plants from other regions. Thus, the young Carl learned from his childhood the love of plants and continued this passion inherited from his father to dedicate himself to the study of botany and animals.

In 1716, Carl began his Latin studies at Vaxjö Cathedral. From a young age he showed interest in natural sciences and knowledge of species, which led him to start collecting plants and insects. His Latin studies helped him deepen his scientific knowledge, since Plutarch's language was the vehicle for transmitting the highest knowledge of the time.

It was at this time that he had the opportunity to meet Johan Rothman, an experienced botanist who introduced the young Carl to the Tournefort classification system., a system that organized plants according to the corolla of their flowers. He also had the opportunity to learn about Sébastien Vaillant's works on plant reproduction as well as to have access to Herman Boerhaave's “Institutiones medicae”.

Already from his childhood, the young Carl Linnæus was fascinated by everything related to the structure and reproduction of plants. Although he had been raised in a family with a long religious lineage, the young man showed no religious vocation and preferred to dedicate himself to the world of natural sciences. In 1727 he began his studies in medicine at the University of Lund at the age of twenty, although that discipline did not suit him. he aroused great interest as did looking for insects and plants around his residence university.

This interest in plants and animals caught the attention of Kilian Strobaeus., a man who lived in Lund and who owned an extensive library. Strobaeus gave young Linnaeus permission to consult his library, something that greatly affected young Carl's life. It would be this experience that would motivate him in his vocation as a naturalist.

After the first year studying at Lund University he was transferred to Uppsala University, which at that time was the main educational center in Sweden.

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first expedition

To move on, the young Carl von Linné he dedicated himself to teaching botany to be able to support himself financially. Despite his precarious economic condition, Linnaeus was able to cover the costs of what would end up being his first botanical and ethnological expedition in Lappish lands around 1731. Using only a horse, a few coins, a notebook and a pencil, the young man went into the unknown and dark Nordic forests.

On his journey through Lapland, a region that includes northern present-day Norway, Sweden, and Finland, Carl von Linné was able to discover hundreds of species that had never been scientifically cataloged before. Despite the fact that he had not left his own country, Linnaeus felt like a true explorer of the New World, except that he was doing it in Sweden itself.

Coupled with his compulsive obsession with wanting to have everything well organized and meticulously named, Linnaeus began his daunting task of naming and classifying every specimen, animal or plant, that came across his path. In addition, he had the opportunity to learn about the Saami peoples, that is, the different Lappish cultures of the region. The work of this time is not only that of a great naturalist but also that of a thorough and careful anthropologist.

His observations and findings in Lappish lands would help him, years later, to publish one of his most important works: "Flora Lapponica". The studies and data presented in this document aroused the interest of the Swedish scientific community and also that of other parts of Europe. His travels through Lapland also motivated him to further study minerals and also propose a classification system for rocks and crystals.

second expedition

After the success of his first expedition through Lapland, which had helped him discover a whole new world within his own country, Linnaeus decided to embark on a second expedition in 1734. This time he would do it accompanied by ten volunteers with whom he would dedicate himself to visiting and studying the flora of the Dalarna region, in central Sweden. This expedition counted on the financial contribution of the governor of that region and resulted in the publication of “Iter Dalecarlicum”.

In 1735 he had the opportunity to meet the family of Dr. Johan Moraeus, paying special attention to his daughter Sara Lisa. Linnaeus asked Moraeus for the hand of her daughter, and although the doctor granted it, he put as a condition prior to marriage that he finished his medical studies at once. So Charles Linnaeus he decided to travel to the Netherlands to finish his medical degree at the University of Harderwijk in the spring of 1735. There he received his doctorate presenting a thesis in which he spoke about the origins of malaria: "Febrium intermitentium Causa"

Later he would move to Leiden, a place that would see several of his most important works published, among which was his own "Flora Lapponica" (1737). It would also be here where he would obtain the necessary financing from the senator of that city to publish his most important work: "Systema naturae" (1735).

While still in the Netherlands Carl von Linné had the opportunity to meet great Dutch botanists, including Jan Frederik Gronovius and George Clifford III, a wealthy plant lover, who commissioned him to reorganize and care for his botanical garden particular. It would be from this work that his work "Hortus Cliffortianus" would be born (Clifford's Garden, 1737), in which he studies and classifies the plants of his wealthy friend.

Other works that he would publish in the Netherlands were “Fundamenta Botanica” and “Bibliotheca Botanica”. In 1737 he published "Critica Botanica", "Genera Plantarum", "Hortus Cliffortianus" and "Flora Lapponica". Shortly before leaving Holland, in 1738, he published "Classes Plantarum". in these works he shows his particular system of classification of plants, in which he uses as criteria the characteristics of the reproductive organs of plants.

In 1736 he traveled to Oxford and met leading English naturalists, including the great botanist J. J. Dillenius. He also took the opportunity to visit France and, shortly after, he would become the eighth foreign member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. His influence in the scientific world was in full swing and thanks to his travels he was able to exchange specimens of plants and animals. He also obtained seeds to reproduce in his many botanical gardens that he himself had founded.

In 1738 he returned to Sweden where, practicing as a doctor, he studied and specialized in the treatment of syphilis.. At the University of Uppsala he is awarded for his work in medicine, in addition to receiving the task of reorganizing the botanical garden of that same university. Linnaeus would take this opportunity to apply his already famous binomial taxonomic system.

professional expeditions

In 1739 he promoted the creation of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences, of which he was its first president. In 1741 he was appointed professor of medical practice at the University of Uppsala and, the following year, he was assigned the chair of botany, dietetics and medical matter, titles much more in line with the already extensive practical knowledge that he owned. Holding these chairs, Linnaeus would make the University of Uppsala the center of study of botany in Europe.

Linnaeus's scientific findings resonated throughout Swedish society to such an extent that the political group of the “hattar” (“hats” in Swedish) began to encourage and support commercial and scientific expeditions promoted by the naturalist. Sweden was in full imperialist expansion, and had a great interest in establishing a trade independent of the rest of Europe. That is why the Swedish bourgeoisie began to support any expedition that involved the discovery of a new trade route to any region rich in resources.

linnaeus he played a decisive and influential role in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Taking advantage of his management position, he made contacts with the Swedish East India Company with the intention of obtaining the necessary financial support to be able to organize their botanical expeditions to regions inhospitable He not only wanted to thoroughly document all the animal and plant species in Sweden, but also those of the rest of Europe and, if possible, the entire world.

It is then that Linnaeus decides to recruit a group of young students, whom he would baptize as the "apostles", to help him in his multiple expeditions worldwide. They would visit all the places there were and would be, both under the command of Linnaeus himself and under the direction of other great explorers such as James Cook.

Despite its commercial and scientific success the expeditions promoted by Linnaeus were very dangerous. Many of the young students who made up the "apostles" ended up dying or imprisoned by madness due to the harshness of the expeditions. Getting away from mother Sweden was already risky, but going to unknown territories in South America or Asia was, on many occasions, visiting hell itself.

The Linnaeus System in taxonomy

The current binomial system for the classification of species is due to Carlos Linnaeus. The first ideas of his theory for this system we have around 1730, when Linnaeus had already developed his own system of classification of plants based on the observations made by Vaillant on the reproductive organs of plants with flower. linnaeus he believed that morphology was the perfect basis for organizing botanical systems and he applied it in his naturalistic work.

As he discovered and described new species, his classification system changed. He strove to create a system that was as natural and as close to reality itself and, although timidly, his writings suggest certain evolutionary beliefs. Although at first he believed that the species on earth had been immutable since Creation, he later changed his mind. he opinion considering that, through hybridization and cross-pollination, he could create new “species” vegetables.

His most important work in botanical terms is "Species Plantarum", published in 1753.. This book, which is a compilation of all his theoretical and practical work in the field, took him more than five years to write and he believed that he would never see it finished. In it he definitively establishes his binomial system to order plants, based on their theoretical similarity with other species and the characteristics of the variety. He came to name 8,000 plants.

Linnaeus' binomial system consists of giving two Latin names to each species, constituting its scientific name. The first word, beginning with a capital letter, refers to the genus, while the second refers to the species or subspecies of the plant, animal or any other specific organism. Both words are in Latin or are Latinized words from non-Romance languages.

This system was so functional that it did not take long for it to be established. In addition, it allowed giving more "surnames" to the species, establishing other taxa higher than the genus that allowed specifying more specifically what was the location of the species in the phylogenetic tree. Naturally, this idea was very advanced for the time and each taxon has been refined over the last 300 years.

For example, the scientific and binomial name of the wolf is "Canis lupus". "Canis" is the common genus with other species, such as the fox. The taxonomic pyramid in which the wolf is located is as follows.

• Species: Canis lupus
• Gender: Canis
• Family: Canidae (Canidae)
• Order: Carnivores (Carnivora)
• Class: Mammals (Mammalia)
• Subphylum: Vertebrates (Vertebrata)
• Edge: Chordates (Chordata)
• Animal Kingdom

Also, each species could be grouped into subspecies. In the case of the dog we have "Canis lupus familiaris". This name refers to the fact that dogs and wolves are part of the same species but the dog has its own characteristics that make it so different from its wild relative that it is almost another species.

Last years

His last years were spent in Sweden as a professor of medicine and botany. in 1758 moved to a residence near Hammarby. In 1762 he received the title that gave him the rank of noble for his scientific merits, since with his task he had made the cold and apparently not very European Sweden become a true center scientist. This is the moment when Carl Nilsson Linnæus would officially be called Carl von Linné.

In the early 1770s Carl von Linné's forces began to wane. During the spring of 1774 he was the victim of a stroke from which he recovered with some sequelae. He would progressively become paralyzed and lose his memory, being unable to recognize the most common and simple of plants. The largest classifier of living species was no longer capable of classifying anything. Carl von Linné died on January 10, 1778, at the age of 70.

Bibliographic references:

• Sousby, B.H. (1933): A Catalog of the Works of Linnaeus. London
• Fries, T. m. (1923): Linnaeus The Story of His Life by him. London
• Blunt, Wilfrid (1971): The complete Naturalist. A life of Linnaeus. London.