What is the main conflict in The English Pupil by Andrea Barrett?

The main conflict revolves around Linnaeus and those who oppose his work. Most of Linnaeus's opponents were foreigners; in Sweden, he was an honored man and had no serious rivals. Although he apparently dreaded public quarrels, Linnaeus knew how to take care of himself in these intellectual conflicts, and at times, he could not only be unreasonable but also vindictive and sly. When one contemporary, a man named Johan Georg Siegesbeck, from St. Petersburg, criticized his system of naming plants, Linnaeus retaliated by naming a particularly unpleasant weed, Sigesbeckia. When Lorenz Heister, a professor of medicine and botany, attacked Linnaeus's system in letters and articles, Linnaeus gradually removed his name from the later editions of his botanical works.