Title:
Albrecht von Haller to Carl Linnaeus
Type:
Image
Licence:
Contact [email protected]
Repository:
The Linnean Society of London
Collection:
Linnaean Correspondence
Reference number:
LC/6/96
Archival level:
Item
Date:
17 November 1746
Placement:
Volume 6: 189
Extent:
189
Language:
la
Description:
Albrecht von Haller has received Linnaeus’s medal. Haller defends varieties of colour, which are very small, variable and unchanged by culture. Unless the proportions of the parts are taken into consideration, botany will be impoverished. Linnaeus will find that his Rubeola with a three-cleft flower has a taller, more lax and pliant stem and that it differs from the Rubeola quadrifolia levis. In Passiflora Linnaeus criticises Haller unjustly about the Granadilla. Haller in fact did not admit them among the Cucurbitaceae. He is grateful for Linnaeus’s account on Muscus Norvegicus. Haller’s Alsine tenuifolia always has five or more stamens. Johann Bauhin’s tenuifolia muscosa is very different, having eight stamens, etc. The Bibliothèque raisonnée might be had from Dutch booksellers. Haller has given an account of Linnaeus’s Öländska resa and will give one of Acta literaria et scientiarum Sueciae. Acetosa montana acri flore is dioecious and allied to the Acetosa pratensis, but differs from the variety of the latter. Nowadays Haller mostly devotes himself to anatomy, but he has educated several young men in botany. [address] A Monsieur/ Monsieur Linnaeus Professeur / en Botanique trez celebre / a Upsal / en Suede
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Transcription:
Celeberrimo Linnaeo S[alutem] A[lbertus] Haller. Pulcherrimus Tuus nummus rite ad me pervenit, pro quo gratias quas decet ago, et pro amoris Tui pignore adservabo. Varietates colorum aut minutissimas et variabiles defendo, sed in cultu constantes. Quae proportiones partium ingrediuntur, expunctas non vellem. Nocet enim hoc studium botanicae eamque depauperat. Rubeolam vestram trifido flore esse invenies caule altiore, laxo et molliori, omnino diversissimam a quadrifolia levi. Ob Granadillas culpas me in Tua diss[ertatione] de Passiflora immeritum. Nam non recepi inter cucurbitaceas et credo defendi posse, si recepissem. De musco Norvegico gratum est, quod scribis. Ego nunquam vidi. Alsine mea tenuifolia omnino aut pentastemon et ultra. Tenuifolia muscosa J[ohannis] B[auhini] diversissima est eaque octo stamina habet, mollis planta, tetrapetala, cum illa duritie fere spinosa, foliis confertissimis, locorum squalidorum, petalorum sit quinque tubarum trium. Viros in nummis expressos egregie ex publicis novis perspectos habeo. Bibliotheque raisonnée ubi conquiratur, nescio. Per Bibliopolas Belgos autem procul dubio potestis a Wetstenio habere. Nuper Tuum Iter recensui; nunc sequentur Acta Stokholmiensia. Nihil ibi, cum nuperrime floram S[uecicam] legissem, reperies, quod honestum virum Tuumque amicum non deceat. Acetosa montana acri fl[ore] perinde dioica est et adfinis pratensi, diversa vero foliis latis patentibus, non undulatis, a varietate pratensis, quae in Bructero nascitur. Pro seminibus gratias ago. Ego nunc a botanicis vivo remotior, merus Anatomicus. Sed juvenes plusculos educavi, quos magnus tenet plantarum ardor. Ii sensim varia et pulchra adtulerunt et adferunt. Sic prospicitur meo senio et corpori a duobus retro annis mire pigrescenti neque longis ambulationibus ut prius idoneo. Vale interim vacuasque literas excusa, quod nummum me accepisse voluerim testari. D[abam] 17 Nov[embris] 1746.
Previous reference number:
L0750
Condition note:
seal tear
