Title:
Abraham Bäck to Carl Linnaeus
Type:
Image
Licence:
Contact [email protected]
Repository:
The Linnean Society of London
Collection:
Linnaean Correspondence
Reference number:
LC/1/114
Archival level:
Item
Date:
11 October 1742
Placement:
Volume 1: 241-242
Extent:
241-242
Language:
sv
Description:
Abraham Bäck wrote a letter to Linnaeus from London on August 16 [this letter has not come down to us], but he does not know if it has disappeared on the way. To show his gratitude, Bäck writes to Linnaeus as often as he writes to his mother [Margareta Bäck-Hedenberg]. He hopes Linnaeus will continue to help him and to defend him against his enemies. Bäck has been almost two months in England. He had been in Oxford for a week, where Johann Jacob Dillenius had congratulated Linnaeus for his new position, which would help him to make use of his great talents in botany. Dillenius had wished Linnaeus could help him, for he did not seem well, and he was rather tired of Oxford. Since then, Bäck has been in Chelsea for a month to practice drawing with Georg Dionysius Ehret an old friend of Linnaeus’s, and to visit the botanical garden [The Chelsea Physic Garden] and Hans Sloane’s museum. Philip Miller has been kind to Bäck and let him take the specimens he wanted. He has got Linnaeus’s letter [this letter has not come down to us], and he promises to send seeds. If Bäck gets these while he is still in London, he will arrange to send them to Linnaeus through the merchants Clason & Spalding. Bäck has also been well received by Peter Collinson and Mark Catesby, and now he is living in the same house as Isaac Lawson. Linnaeus is fully aware of the state of botany in England. Plants are collected and transferred to England from all of Virginia and Carolina. If Linnaeus could be in England for a year, there would be many new characters of such species. Bäck has seen Linnaeus’s friend John Martyn, who mentions Linnaeus honourably in his Virgil’s Georgica [Bäck refers to the Pub. Virgilii Maronis Georgicorum libri quatuor, edited and translated into English by Martyn] and quotes a long passage from Flora Lapponica. He will go on with his Decades [Bäck refers to the Historia plantarum rariorum; no more volumes of this work was published after 1737] next summer. Dillenius is said to have a collection of rare plants as large as Hortus Elthamensis, and he will publish it when he gets subscriptions. Bäck was pleased to hear from Dillenius, after many preambles, that Linnaeus’s method was the best one for putting names to dry specimens. Bäck had answered that it should be equally good for living plants, to which Dillenius has not answered anything. Bäck has examined many American plants and used Genera plantarum, which he would not be without for anything. Linnaeus’s name system is superior, and Bäck wishes that Philosophia botanica was published or that there was some explication for beginners of terms available like that found in Fundamenta botanica. Bäck had happened to get a fresh flower of a bush that had recently arrived from John Clayton to Catesby. It is no doubt a Hamamelis, described by Johan Frederik Gronovius. Bäck gives a full description of it. He comments on some details that must have been missing in the specimen used by Gronovius, and he is confident that he will see who is right, when the flowering continues. Bäck has also seen Hura flower. He comments on some details of its petals and stamens, but he hopes to be able to observe it better later on. There is nothing new this time from Virginia except a specimen of Magnoliae affinis. Bäck has not been able to examine it thoroughly, but he gives a description. Bäck sends his regards to the two Celsius’s [Anders Celsius and Olof Celsius] , Magnus Olai Beronius and other patrons and friends. P.S. Bäck asks Linnaeus to forward an enclosure immediately.
Sender:
Bäck, Abraham
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Sent to location:
[Uppsala, Sweden]
Transcription:
Högädle och Widtberömde Herr Professor. Efter min ankomst til London hafwer jag hafft den äran at skrifwa H[err] Professorn et bref til, d[en] 16 Aug[usti] sistl[edne]. Jag wet eij om det är framkommit. Til et prof af min tacksamhet för Herr Professorns mångfalldiga gunst emot mig, skrifwer jag så ofta til Herr Professorn som til min mor. Jag hoppas at Herr Professorn far fort til at gynna mig, och jag utbeder mig at få hädanefter, så wäl som härtils, hugna mig af förtroende och förswar emot mina owänner. Snart i twå månader hafwer jag wistats i England. En wicka war jag i Oxfort. D[octor] Dillenius fägnade sig deröfwer, at Herr Professorn bekommit så beqwäm station til at upodla sina stora Pund med lika flit och accuratess för Botaniquen. Önskade at han hade Herr Professorn til hielp i sina arbeten. Ser eij frisk ut och lät höra sig trött och ledsen wid Oxfort. Sedan har jag uppehållit mig i Chelsea en månad, både til at öfwa mig mer i ritande hos Mr Ehret, en gammal Herr Professorns tjenare, såsom ock at hafwa bättre tilfälle til Hortum Chelseanum och Sir Hanses Musaeum. Mr Miller har warit rätt artig emot mig, gifwit mig frihet at taga hwad specimina jag welat. Han har fått Herr Professorns bref och lofwat sända frön. Om the blifwa färdiga, medan jag är i London, så skal jag draga försorg therom, at de richtigt komma til H[errar] Clason och Spalding, som alltid hafwa tilfälle at sända dem öfwer. Collinson har giordt mig mycken tjenst; Catesby har jag hafft nöije af och nu logerar jag i samma hus med Doctor Lawson. För öfrigit, uti hwad stånd Historia Naturalis är i England, wet Herr Professorn bäst. Ingen går öfwer dem, at leta up af alla winklar och wrår i Virginia och Carolina örter, samt planta dem här, caetera nihil. Om Herr Professorn wore i England et helt åhr öfwer, hwad mycket wackra Planter skulle orbis Botanicus få kundskap och characteres af. Jag har hällsat på D[octor] Martyn, Herr Professorns goda wänn. Han talar med mycken heder om Herr Professorn i sin Virgilii Georgicis, och citerar en hel passage af Flora Lapponica. Nästa sommar will han continuera sina Decades. Thet säijes at Dillenius har en samling af rara plantor, som kan blifwa så stor som Hortus Elthamensis, then han ärnar utgifwa, när han får subscriptioner. Thet war roligt at höra Dillenius säija efter många praeambler och aeqvivocationer, thet Herr Professorns method war den bästa til at betjena sig af, at finna namn til specimina sicca. Han swarade intet, när jag sade, thet sådan method måste wara jemwel den bästa til at kiänna crescentes plantas. Jag har examinerat många Americanas plantas, som jag här funnit i bloma, och med högsta satisfaction confererat Herr Professorns Genera, en bok som jag intet wille mista för alla andra Auctores i Botaniquen. Herr Professorns nomina specifica, huru wel äro de icke inrättade? Jag önskar, at H[err] Professorns Philosophia Botanica wore utgifwen, eller at imedlertid någon explicatio terminorum, som i fundamentis Botanicis äro upräknade, wore at tilgå för Begynnare i Herr Professorns method. Jag hade lycka at komma öfwer en frisk bloma af en Buska, som Catesby fått nyligen ifrån Clayton, och under wägen begynt blomstras. Thet är utan twifwel Hamamelis Gronov. Linn. Gen. Gronovius lärer allenast hafft specimen siccum. Jag fant således: CAL: Perianthium triphyllum, foliolo extimo ovato lanceolato, duobus reliquis minoribus obtusis. Involucrum monopetalum, sed profunde divisum in quatuor lacinias obverse ovatas, duplo longiores Perianthio, extus & ad margines leviter villosas COR. ut in Linn. Gen. STAM. Filamenta 4 linearia plana aequalia, erecta, singula inter singula petala. Antherae introrsum flexae, ad invicem approximantes PIST. ut in Linn. Gen. PERICARP. Capsula bilocularis, bivalvis, utroque loculo per transversim dehiscente in maturo. SEM. ut in Linn. Gen I Gronovii specimine lära de warit förlorade foliola Perianthii. Thet jag kallar Involucrum, har han tagit för Perianthium. När jag får se huru blomstren fortfara, så kan jag determinera, hwilken af oss har rätt. Hura har jag sedt i Bloma. Then har utom det petalum infundibuliforme, hwilket Herr Professorn sedt, understundom en strobilum coniformem, å hwilken såsom i squamulis sittja apices staminum. förmodeligen är nämnda petalum, pistillum eller något likt pistillo. Thet är wist, at det affaller, utan at något kommer up, som kan kallas stamen. Jag hoppas at bättre observera detta. Ingen ting särdeles nytt kom denna gången ifrån Virginia, utom specimen af en ört, then Clayton kallar Magnoliae affinis. Jag har eij fått den om hand, så att jag kunnat examinera den. Claytons Characteres äro dessa: Anonymos Magnoliae affinis foliis ovato – oblongis, acuminatis, subtus pallidioribus, serratis CAL: Perianthium monophyllum, quinquefidum, persistens, laciniis rotundis, rigidis, patentibus. COR: Petala quinque maxima, alba intus, dilute flavescentia, obverse ovata, perianthii laciniis plusquam septies majora. STAM. Filamenta numerosa, erecta, subulata, purpurea, germini, undequaque insidentia; antherae di-vel tridymae incumbentes PIST. Germen obtuse conicum, Stylus Cylindraceus, filamentis haud longior, stigma obtuse tridentatum flavescens, cauliculis paululum repandis. PERIC. Pomum obtuse conicum non umbilicatum, pubescens carnosum, quinqueloculare, loculis membranaceis. SEM. Quinque ovata, compressa, ossea, extremo fusca singulis loculis singula. Floret ad finem Maij in locis umbrosis, solo humida. Herr Professorn är så gunstig och anmäler min ödmiuka respect til Doctor och Professor Celsius, H[err] Professor Beronius samt flera gynnare och wänner. Jag lefwer med nöije HögEdle och widtberömde Herr Professorns ödmiuke tjenare Abraham Baeck. London d. 30 Sept. 1742. Jag beder ödmiukeligen at innelychta recommenderas utan dröijsmåhl.
Previous reference number:
L0467
