Do you know what a Solanum caule inermi herbaceo, foliis pinnatis incises,
racemis simplicibus is?* Carolus (Karl) Linnaeus started off as a curious child
who loved exploring the garden. Despite his intelligence--and his mother's
scoldings--he was a poor student, preferring to be outdoors with his beloved
plants and bugs. As he grew up, Karl's love of nature led him to take on a
seemingly impossible task: to give a scientific name to every living thing on
earth. The result was the Linnaean system--the basis for the classification
system used by biologists around the world today. Backyard sciences are brought
to life in beautiful color.
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