Elisabeth Christina von Linné (1743–1782), was a Swedish botanist, daughter of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

and

Sara Elisabeth Moræa Sara Elisabeth "Sara Lisa" von Linné (née Moræa; 26 April 1716 – 20 April 1806) was married to Carl Linnaeus and was mother to Carl Linnaeus the Younger and Elisabeth Christina von Linné. She was involved in the creation of the Linnea ...

.Family life
,

Uppsala universitet Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, 2008. Läst den 4 maj 2013.

Life

There is no direct information about the education of Elisabeth Christina von Linné, as it is not clearly mentioned anywhere. However, as her brother was given home tuition in preparation for university studies, and she is confirmed to have socialized with the students of her father, who were also tutored in the family home, it is seen as likely that she was given home tuition by the same teachers as her brother and her father's students, perhaps also with them, which was not uncommon in Sweden at the time. She was acquainted with several of her father's students, among them Erik Gustaf Lidbeck and

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil. Biography ...

, the latter of whom she reportedly wished to marry, but as he did not return from his expedition, the marriage never took place. Linné married major Carl Fredrik Bergencrantz in 1764 and had two children. However, she left her husband and moved back with her parents a couple of years after her wedding because she had been subjected to

spousal abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner v ...

: she died at the age of 39, and her children also died before adulthood. Her mother blamed her early death upon the abuse she had been subjected to while married.

Scientific activity

Linné is referred to as the first female botanist in Sweden in a modern sense, despite not having received any formal education. It was she who first described the optic phenomenon in which the ''

Tropaeolum majus ''Tropaeolum majus'', the garden nasturtium, nasturtium, Indian cress or monks cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Tropaeolaceae, originating in the Andes from Bolivia north to Colombia. An easily-grown annual or short-lived per ...

'' appears to send out small bursts of lightning, now named the ''Elizabeth Linnæus Phenomenon'' (or, in German, ) after her. She published her observations on the topic in a paper for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1762, aged 19. The paper is called ("Concerning the flickering of the Indian crass"). This paper came to the notice of the English doctor, scientist and poet, Erasmus Darwin. He included a reference to it in his "The botanic garden, part II, containing the loves of the plants" (1789) in which he also reported a confirmation of the phenomenon by M. Haggren, a lecturer in natural history who had published his findings in Paris in 1788. The poets

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

read Darwin's accounts early in their careers and, influenced by these accounts, they referred to flashing flowers in their poems, Wordsworth in "I wandered lonely as a cloud" also called "Daffodils" ('They flash upon that inward eye') and Coleridge in his "Lines Written At Shurton Bars..." ('Flashes the golden-coloured flower / A fair electric flame'). Thus Elizabeth Linnaeus came, through Darwin, to influence the pioneers of English Romantic poetry.Fred Blick, ″Wordsworth, Coleridge, Science and Flashing Flowers: The Influence of Elizabeth Linnaeus and Erasmus Darwin″, https://www.academia.edu/12902335/Wordsworth_Coleridge_Science_and_Flashing_Flowers_The_Influence_of_Elizabeth_Linnaeus_and_Erasmus_Darwin

Life

Scientific activity

References

Further reading