Carl Linnaeus
"Carl Linnaeus (23 May[note 1] 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).
Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, while publishing several volumes. He was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe at the time of his death.
Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist." Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists) and "The Pliny of the North". He is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology.
In botany and zoology, the abbreviation L. is used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for a species' name. In older publications, the abbreviation "Linn." is found. Linnaeus's remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen that he is known to have examined was himself...
...
Major publications
Systema Naturae
The first edition of Systema Naturae was printed in the Netherlands in 1735. It was a twelve-page work.[138] By the time it reached its 10th edition in 1758, it classified 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. People from all over the world sent their specimens to Linnaeus to be included. By the time he started work on the 12th edition, Linnaeus needed a new invention—the index card—to track classifications.
In Systema Naturae, the unwieldy names mostly used at the time, such as "Physalis annua ramosissima, ramis angulosis glabris, foliis dentato-serratis", were supplemented with concise and now familiar "binomials", composed of the generic name, followed by a specific epithet—in the case given, Physalis angulata. These binomials could serve as a label to refer to the species. Higher taxa were constructed and arranged in a simple and orderly manner. Although the system, now known as binomial nomenclature, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers (see Gaspard Bauhin and Johann Bauhin) almost 200 years earlier, Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout the work, including in monospecific genera, and may be said to have popularised it within the scientific community.
After the decline in Linnaeus's health in the early 1770s, publication of editions of Systema Naturae went in two different directions. Another Swedish scientist, Johan Andreas Murray issued the Regnum Vegetabile section separately in 1774 as the Systema Vegetabilium, rather confusingly labelled the 13th edition.[141] Meanwhile a 13th edition of the entire Systema appeared in parts between 1788 and 1793. It was through the Systema Vegetabilium that Linnaeus's work became widely known in England, following its translation from the Latin by the Lichfield Botanical Society as A System of Vegetables (1783–1785).
Orbis eruditi judicium de Caroli Linnaei MD scriptis
('Opinion of the learned world on the writings of Carl Linnaeus, Doctor') Published in 1740, this small octavo-sized pamphlet was presented to the State Library of New South Wales by the Linnean Society of NSW in 2018. This is considered among the rarest of all the writings of Linnaeus, and crucial to his career, securing him his appointment to a professorship of medicine at Uppsala University. From this position he laid the groundwork for his radical new theory of classifying and naming organisms for which he was considered the founder of modern taxonomy.
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum (or, more fully, Species Plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas) was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today.
Genera Plantarum
Genera plantarum: eorumque characteres naturales secundum numerum, figuram, situm, et proportionem omnium fructificationis partium was first published in 1737, delineating plant genera. Around 10 editions were published, not all of them by Linnaeus himself; the most important is the 1754 fifth edition. In it Linnaeus divided the plant Kingdom into 24 classes. One, Cryptogamia, included all the plants with concealed reproductive parts (algae, fungi, mosses and liverworts and ferns).
Philosophia Botanica
Philosophia Botanica (1751)[99] was a summary of Linnaeus's thinking on plant classification and nomenclature, and an elaboration of the work he had previously published in Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Critica Botanica (1737). Other publications forming part of his plan to reform the foundations of botany include his Classes Plantarum and Bibliotheca Botanica: all were printed in Holland (as were Genera Plantarum (1737) and Systema Naturae (1735)), the Philosophia being simultaneously released in Stockholm."
link
The statue of Carl Linnaeus
This statue is one of eight standing at each corner of the octagonal Palm House Building in Sefton Park.
"Sefton Park in Liverpool is arguably the best known and most loved by locals. Classified as a Grade One listed park by English Heritage, the magnificent 200-acre Park looks like a natural landscape rather than a man-made park. In spring the sight of millions of golden daffodils around the lake draws residents from across the city and carpets of bluebells give an impression of rural permanence.
The park features many distinctive curved paths and driveways and beech and other indigenous British trees abound. Amongst the park's many features are a boating lake, replica statues of Eros and Peter Pan and a café. The park is also home to the famous Palm House, a fabulous glass-panelled building that has been restored to its former glory."
link
The Palm House is a Historic England Grade II* Listed Building.
GV II* Palm House, built in 1896, designed by Mackenzie and Moncur. It is octagonal in plan. It has an iron frame on a granite base, with totally glazed openings. It appears as a sequence of three domical roofs, one above the other, including a clerestorey and lantern with a ball finial. The side elevations are of six bays with three round-arched lights and colonnettes to each bay, and ornamental cresting above. There are entrances to the north, south-east and west with barrel-vaulted porches that are enclosed at the sides and have ornamental gates, some with animals or birds. There are statues at each angle by Léon-Joseph Chavalliaud of famous gardeners, explorers and scientists. Flanking the north entrance are A le Notre and J Parkinson; to the east are Mercator and Captain Cook; to the south are Darwin and Linnaeus; and to the west are Henry the Navigator and Columbus."
link
The marble statue shows Carl Linnaeus dressed in historical clothing that he would have worn whilst plant hunting. He has a plant in his right hand, a cloth bag in his left and leather bags hanging from his belt. There is an inscription on the plinth.
LINNAEUS
CARL LINNE BORN AT RASHULT IN SOUTH SWEDEN MAY 1707
DIED AT UPSALA JANUARY 1776
TANTUS AMOR FLORUM
THE LORD HATH PERMITTED ME TO
VISIT HIS SECRET COUNCIL CHAMBERS
HE HATH MADE ME A NAME LIKE THE
NAME OF THE GREAT MEN THAT ARE
IN THE EARTH