Carolus Linnaeus. Engraving of Carolus Linnaeus,(1707-78),Swedish botanist,narrowly avoiding falling into a crevasse whilst on an expedition to Lapland,Finland,in 1732. Linnaeus had been asked to make this expedition by Uppsala University,Sweden,where he was teaching at the time. He travelled over 7300 km in northern Scandinavia,discovering a hundred new species of plants and making observations on the animal life as well. Linnaeus devised a classification system for plants that was based on the structure of their sexual organs and published it in Systema Naturae (The Natural World,1735). His work became the foundation of modern taxonomy |