In a letter to Baron Haller, written at the time of his father’s death, Linnæus says: “He was an uncommon lover of plants, and had a select garden of numerous rare species.” The favourite taste of the father was quickly imbibed by the child, who was his constant companion while he cultivated the choice parterre, and eagerly tried to yield such slight aid as his childish powers permitted. He has recorded the first occasion when this innate passion was decidedly displayed, or rather, perhaps, when it sprung into consciousness. He was hardly four years old when he chanced to accompany his father to a rural fête at Möklen, and in the evening, it being a pleasant season of the year, the guests seated themselves on the flowery turf and listened to the good pastor, who entertained them with remarks on the names and properties of the plants which grew around them, showing them the roots of succisa, tormentilla, orchides, etc. The little Carl attended with the utmost eagerness to all he saw and heard, and “from that time never ceased harassing his father with questions about the name, qualities, and nature of every plant he met with.” An unlooked-for result of the evening lecture, and which seems to have cost the worthy man no small trouble, for the child (not unlike other children, for that matter) very often asked more than his father was able to answer; in addition to which he “used immediately to forget all he had learned, and especially the names of plants.” To cure him of this mischievous habit of inattention his father refused to answer his questions unless he would promise to remember what was told him, which judicious management wrought a speedy and effectual cure, insomuch that he tells us he ever afterwards retained with ease, whatever he heard. Besides this retentiveness of memory he possessed an “astonishing quickness of sight,” an almost necessary qualification for the study of his favourite science. When the boy was eight years old a separate plot of ground was assigned him by his father, which was called “Carl’s garden,” and which he soon stored with collections of plants and wild flowers, gathered from the woods and fields around his dwelling. At the same time he introduced a variety of weeds, a treasure which it afterwards cost his father no small pains to eradicate from his flower-beds. The enterprising youngster even tried the experiment of establishing a swarm of wild bees and wasps in the garden, the result of which was a devastating warfare waged against the domestic hives.