Engraving of Carolus Linnaeus, (1707-78), Swedish botanist, wearing traditional Lapp clothes. Linnaeus made an expedition into Lapland, northern Scandinavia, in 1732 on behalf of Uppsala University, Sweden, where he had been teaching. He travelled over 7300 km in Lapland, 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. |