In Swedish history, Linnaeus and his travelling students, “the apostles” have had a place of honour. In the first comprehensive biography of Linnaeus and his apostles, a two volume work, published in 1903, Professor Theodor [Thore] Magnus Fries referred to them as “these pioneers of nature research” who, despite the fact that some of them “died the deaths of martyrs,” were not discouraged from joining the cause and “tread the same path of starvation…struggle…and death”.