In Burmann's house he found a collection of natural objects and an extensive library, both of which were of great use to him. The time passed pleasantly enough, and he deferred his return to Sweden till the following spring; about which period, a circumstance occurred that proved of great advantage to him. Dr George Cliffort, burgomaster at Amsterdam and one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company, who was a zealous lover of natural science, was in need of a domestic physician to take daily care of his health. Boerhaave, who was his medical attendant, recommended Linnaeus, whom he represented as being also an excellent botanist, and capable of arranging his botanic garden. Cliffort accordingly invited Burmann and Linnaeus to Hartecamp, his villa, where they found many new plants from the Cape of Good Hope. The young Swede pointed out those which had not been described, and evinced so accurate a knowledge of botany, that the burgomaster made him a proposal of free board and lodging, with a salary of 1000 florins. The terms were accepted with no small satisfaction. This year he published a tract which he had commenced at Upsal,--his Fundamenta Botanica,--in which he exhibited the basis of his new system in 365 aphorisms. About the same time he printed his Bibliotheca Botanica, another small work, the materials of which he had found in the libraries of Spreckelsen, Burmann, Gronovius, and Cliffort. A description of the banana-tree (_Musa paradisiaca_), which had flowered in the garden of his patron, formed the subject of a third treatise. The Imperial Academy of Naturalists at Vienna admitted him as a member, under the honourable appellation of Dioscorides the Second, and his name began to be known throughout Germany. Cliffort being desirous of extending his collection by obtaining new species from England, resolved to send Linnaeus to that country, which he did in the latter part of July, limiting the period of his absence to twelve days. The passage from Rotterdam to Harwich occupied eight; and the stranger, finding himself surrounded by attractions, was in no haste to return, even to the elysium of Hartecamp. He arrived in London, with a letter of introduction from Boerhaave to the celebrated Sir Hans Sloane. Whether the venerable physician meant to make merry at the expense of the naturalists, or whether he really thought they both deserved the compliment which he paid to them in his note, let the reader determine:--"Linnaeus, who will give you this letter, is alone worthy of seeing you, alone worthy of being seen by you. He who shall see you both together shall see a pair, whose like will scarcely be found in the world."