Richard Collins on a pioneering mind almost lost to history.

HARDERWIJK is on the edge of the Veluwemeer, the long neck of the Zuiderzee, at the dead centre of the Netherlands.

THE GREAT Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus, the third centenary of whose birth is being celebrated in 2007, was the first person to grow bananas in Europe.

THE MOST frequently mentioned name in the history of science is that of the botanist Carl Linné.