This estimable and learned man, to whom Scandinavia owes so much in regard to natural history, had just returned from Stockholm, where he had been engaged in preparing his celebrated work upon the plants mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, which he published in 1745, having travelled to the East on purpose to make it more complete. Little did Celsius imagine that the youth, whom he first met, by chance, in the academical garden at Upsala, was destined, in after years, by his genius, to immortalize its fame. He, however, soon discerned the merits of Linnæus, took him under his protection, offering him board and lodging in his own house, and allowing him the full use of his library, which was very rich in botanical books. Among all his patrons, Linnæus appears to have dearly cherished the memory of this venerable man, never referring to him but in terms of reverence and gratitude. The friendship and patronage of one so distinguished, did not fail to procure for the youth the advantages he so much needed. Before long, the son of Professor Rudbeck, and other young men, became his private pupils, and by this means his pecuniary wants were supplied. Nothing, however, seems to have given Linnæus so much satisfaction in reviewing the events of this period of his early history, as the intimate friendship he now contracted with a fellow-student, named Artedi, who afterwards distinguished himself by his knowledge of fishes and umbelliferous plants. To the picture he has drawn of his friend, Linnæus has added a slight sketch of himself. There was a great difference in the personal appearance, as well as in the temperament and disposition of the two youths. Artedi was of a tall and handsome figure, more serious, and of a deliberate judgment; whereas his friend was short in stature and stout, hasty in temper, and of a sanguine turn. The two companions pursued their favourite studies with an honourable spirit of emulation. They divided the kingdoms and provinces of nature between them, and while Linnæus yielded the palm to Artedi in ichthyology (the science of fish), the latter acknowledged Linnæus to be his superior in entomology, or that of insects. Each kept his discoveries to himself, though for no great length of time, since not a day passed without one surprising the other by narrating some new fact, so that emulation produced mutual industry of research, and stimulated each to new exertions. Linnæus was now in his twenty-second year, about which time he met with a review of Le Vaillant’s treatise, “Sur la Structure des Fleurs” (“On the Structure of Flowers”), by which his curiosity was excited to a close examination of the stamens and pistils (the central and reproductive structures), and, perceiving the essential importance of these parts of the plant, he formed the design of a new method of arrangement, founded upon these organs. This was the first dawning idea of that great system upon which his subsequent fame was based.