Karl, Get Out of the Garden!: Carolus Linnaeus and the Naming of Everything

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 s...