![]() ![]() Honey bee feeding on a coneflower ( Rudbeckia) Accept this plant, not for what it is but for what it will become when it bears your name. Pride of our gardens, the Rudbeckia will be cultivated throughout Europe and in distant lands where your revered name must long have been known. Its rayed flowers will bear witness that you shone among savants like the sun among the stars its perennial roots will remind us that each year sees you live again through new works. I have chosen a noble plant in order to recall your merits and the services you have rendered, a tall one to give an idea of your stature, and I wanted it to be one which branched and which flowered and fruited freely, to show that you cultivated not only the sciences but also the humanities. So long as the earth shall survive and as each spring shall see it covered with flowers, the Rudbeckia will preserve your glorious name. In his book The Compleat Naturalist: A Life of Linnaeus, Wilfred Blunt quotes Linnaeus's dedication: Rudbeck had then recommended Linnaeus to replace him as a lecturer at the university and as the botanical garden demonstrator, even though Linnaeus was only in his second year of studies. In 1730 Linnaeus had been invited into the home of the younger Rudbeck (now almost 70) as tutor his youngest children. The name was given by Carolus Linnaeus to honor his patron and fellow botanist at Uppsala University, Olof Rudbeck the Younger (1660–1740), as well as Rudbeck's late father Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630–1702), a distinguished Naturalist, Philologist, and Doctor of Medicine (he had discovered the lymphatic system), and founder of Sweden's first botanic garden, now the Linnaean Garden at Uppsala. The species are commonly called coneflowers and black-eyed-susans all are native to North America and many species are cultivated in gardens for their showy yellow or gold flower heads. Rudbeckia /rʌdˈbɛkiə/ is a plant genus in the sunflower family. ![]()
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