Linnaeus, Carolus, << lih NEE uhs, KAR uh luhs >> (1707-1778), a Swedish naturalist and botanist, established the modern scientific method of naming plants and animals. In this system, each living thing has a name with two parts. The first part of the name is for the genus (group). The second part is for the species (kind). Linnaeus’ book Species Plantarum (1753) forms the basis for plant classification. The 10th edition of his Systema Naturae (1758) covers animal classification. See Classification, Scientific .
Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707, in Rashult, near Kristianstad, Sweden. His father, the parish curate, wanted him to study for the ministry. But the boy was so interested in plants that friends urged his parents to send him to medical school. While in medical school, Linnaeus supervised a small botanical garden and began an insect collection. He wrote careful descriptions of all the kinds of plants he knew, and these notes formed the basis for his books. He became famous as Carolus Linnaeus because he wrote his books in Latin.
With money given him by the Royal Society of Science, he spent five months in 1732 collecting plants in Lapland. During this trip, he walked nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). Linnaeus then went to the Netherlands, where he received his medical degree. When he returned to Stockholm to practice medicine, the Swedish government gave him a position. Linnaeus became a professor of botany at Uppsala University in 1742. In 1758, he was granted Swedish nobility and changed his name to Carl von Linne. He died at Uppsala on Jan. 10, 1778.
