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/6/86
Archival level:
Item
Date:
25 August 1740
Placement:
Volume 6: 173-174
Extent:
173-174
Language:
la
Description:
Albrecht von Haller has not received a letter from Linnaeus recently and entreats him to continue their correspondence. Haller sends his two Itineraries. He has sent to the press the beginning of his “Synopsis” of Swiss plants, where the Fungi are described, a difficult genus. Since then he has seen a beautiful red kind of Trichosphaera pediculata, truly coral-like. This autumn he wishes to complete the nomenclature of the Musci and Lichenes. Linnaeus’s genera for grasses please Haller very much. Johann Scheuchzer cannot be followed, because of his innumerable varieties, his scattering the Loliaceous grasses into four or more different classes, his spurious and ill-defined tribe of Heteromalla, etc. The establishment of genera for the whole vegetable kingdom obviously requires one person to know all the characters of all the species in the world. Linnaeus has set an excellent example. Haller would like to have Swedish mosses, seeds and minerals. He has not seen Johan Frederik Gronovius’s Flora Virginica. The Germans have no Horti except for that of Lorenz Heister. Haller would like to have a European Flora based on Linnaeus’s principles. Someone can only develop a universal system if all botanists send him their observations and dried specimens. The French do nothing. Nothing has been done with Charles Plumier’s posthumous works. Haller expects something from Italy written by Pietro Antonio Micheli. Haller’s wife has died in childbirth.
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Transcription:
Celeberrimo LINNAEO, S[alutem] p[lurimam] d[icit] Alb[ertus] Haller. Quamvis dudum ad meas nullam Tuam responsionem accepi, malui id dare alicui infortunio aut negociis Tuis cumulatioribus quam quidem negligenti aut contentori Animo. Ergo denuo Te sollicito ad commercium duoque mea itinera mitto, in quibus, si aliquando a Te dissenserim, est tamen in rebus levissimi momenti. Initium meae Synopseos Helveticarum Stirpium sub prelum misi, quo Fungos tradidi, mutabile et infidum plantularum genus. Ab eo tempore plusculas ejus gentis observavi & pulchram inprimis Trichosphaeram rufam, pediculatam, pilis corticalibus in vortices pulchre dispositis, inter quos pollen seminalis latebat, spongiam mollem lignosam, quae junior videtur, verum Coralloides, etc. Hoc autumno, si DEUS vires dabit, perficiam Muscorum & lichenum nomenclatorem, de quibus pulcherrimum nunc DILLENII opus sub prelo est. Ego 20 fere species sculptas dabo. Tabulae fere omnes paratae sunt. In graminibus, quae nuper evolvi, Tua genera mihi eximie placuerunt. Deserendus certe est bonus Scheuchzerus ob varietates innumerabiles, ob loliacea gramina in 4 aut ultra classes lacerata, ob spurium & male definitum genus heteromallorum, ob nimias ubique a densiori, laxiori, pulchro, etc. & aliis incertis notis distributiones. Ipsae descriptiones, cum fusissimae sint, pene inutiles sunt. Carent enim specificis differentiis, quas saepe omni meo labore nullas invenio. In universum generum adhuc constitutio laborat, et merito. Poscit enim specierum omnium characteres uni mortali evidenter perspectas. Tu certe egregie praeivisti. Meum non est in Flora talia audere, neque sufficientem numerum coram habeo characterum. Laborabo in firmandis plantis, ut quae diversae sint, quae minime, paulo certius intelligatur. Tu, qui versaris in regione maritima, muscosa, septentrionali, fac, si id cum negociis Tuis consentire potest, ut aliquas siccas plantulas aut & semina habeam indigenarum. Juvabis hominem non ingratum futurum & similia donula retributurum. Dudum obtuli Tibi mineras meas. Ad primum nutum mittam omnes, quas satis divites ex Hercynia & ex Saxonia habeo. Nova botanica nescio, an exspectes; mihi nulla sunt. Necdum vidi floram Gronovianam. Germani nummulos, eosque paucos, curant unice, neque hortos habent praeter unum Heisterum, qui iis, uti nosti, utitur. Mihi paucae sunt plantae neque publice adjuvor neque ipse ferendis sum sumtibus. Quotquot sunt, earum characteres servo. Utinam haberemus studio Tuo conscriptam Floram Europaeam! Nam universale systema non exspectandum videtur nisi ab homine, ad quem omnes botanici suas Observationes hortosque siccos contulerint. DILLENIUS multa praesidia habet, utinam ante fatum aliquid perficiat! Galli tantis divites praesidiis nihil promovent, et quare? Dudum fama est de Plumerii posthumis. Cum adcurate perquirerem, nihil adhuc factum esse doceor. Ex Italia exspectamus aliquid MICHELIANORUM operum, viri industrii, sed mirifici multiplicatoris varietatum, neque satis fidi in pulchris suis characteribus. In Hepatica, Marchantia, Muscis, etc. passim gemmas pro capsulis seminum dedit. Plura nunc addere non vacat. Funestum puerperium ante hos duos menses abstulit uxorem, moribus, ingenio, natalibus certe commendabilem. Me in alia fata DEUS usque reservat. Vale & cum MORAEA Tua vive felix et fama Tua fruere! Sed et Te et me doceat Supremus LEGISLATOR nihil in hac fluxa vita praesidii esse adversus terrores proximae et inevitabilis Aeternitatis, nihil proficere famam, opes, suavissimas amicitias, nisi cum EO in gratiam redierimus. Dabam Gottingae die 25 August[i] 1740.
Previous reference number:
L0395
Condition note:
black-edged paper
