Just to remind you to give the big sexy guy a thought tomorrow - it's an important birthday when you get to be 300. (Actually, he was born in May, but the Linnaean Society is going to give out medals in his honour tonight, so that apparently makes it OK to celebrate all over again.)
My favourite story about Linnaeus is that he was terribly bossy, always made his daughters wear traditional Swedish dress, and that he slightly made up a whole chunk of one of his most famous travels. I don't know how true these two stories are, but they appear in Patricia Fara's excellent book on the subject. But if you want to quickly get a handle on botany's most self-regarding forefather, Jane Owen's article is a nice place to start.
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