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/6/95
Archival level:
Item
Date:
17 October 1746
Placement:
Volume 6: 187-188
Extent:
187-188
Language:
la
Description:
Albrecht von Haller has a drawing of Amethystina, but he fears no Swedish engraver can reproduce it accurately. This plant comes next to Verbena, but differs in the bell-shaped calyx. He would have liked to arrange the whole genus of Verbena according to the European species and keep them together with their associates the Ringentes (Royen). Even Salvia might be placed with them. Studying synonyms is difficult, unless you have each author’s dried plants from each country. Haller has great difficulty subdividing plants into varieties and species. In Linnaeus’s Flora Svecica several species have been expunged, which Haller wants Linnaeus to change in the next edition. Haller has four distinct species of Phalangium with white flowers. He has done little in botany. Anatomy is his chief occupation. Next year he will return to his books. Haller will gladly accept Linnaeus’s medal and will have it put in Johann Tobias Köhler’s Münzbelustigungen. Haller begs Linnaeus to send him dried plants from the north if sending seeds is too difficult. In return he will send Alpine plants and rare German ones. He has not seen Jean François Séguier’s work. He awaits John Blackstone from England. Haller denies Linnaeus’s claim that he has subjoined Granadilla to the Cucurbitaceae. Even if he had done so, he would have done nothing wrong. Everything does not have to be the same in a natural class. Melothria, e.g., has both sexes in one flower. Trientalis is an adjective. Valerius Cordus says herba trientalis. Haller has united two distinct kinds of Gentiana under the name pratensis flore lanuginoso. In Acta literaria et scientiarum Sueciae as well as in his Öländska resa Linnaeus has counfounded Rubeola flore trifido with Rubeola quadrifolia levis (Tournefort). As to what Linnaeus writes on Valantia and Aparine Haller would not easily separate plants merely because of sexual differences. Myrrhis (illustrated in Heinrich Bernhard Ruppe) is a distinct plant. The white Lychnis sylvestris is dioecious just as the red one. Geranium moschatum and Geranium Myrrhidis folio might be varieties of each other. Geranium creticum acu longissimo and Geranium Coriandri folio acu longissimo are very different, though pentandrous. The seeds and flowers show a wide difference. He longs very much for seeds of the little Thalictrum faetidum. He hopes to collect seeds from Commelina lutea this year. The genus of Aloe produces various kinds of flowers, but there is a general agreement in the habit. Gramen typhoides, spica instar limae dentata is a mere variety. The common Rheum and the Siberian Rheum are perfectly distinct. Acetosa montana, lato Ari folio is a different plant from the common one. Haller combined them too hastily. In Bibliothèque raisonnée Linnaeus will find an account of the Öländska resa written after Haller had perused Flora Svecica. He has made a preparation of the membrane of the pupil in the eyes of a new-born infant.
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Transcription:
Celeberrimo Viro D[omino] C[arolo] S[alutem] A[lbertus] Haller. Gratum est, quod observatiunculas acceperis. Plures submittam, uti id tempora mea ferent. Amethystinae valde perfectam iconem possideo, sed vereor, ut apud Vos sculptor sit, qui eam pro dignitate exprimat. Bergquist satis eleganti manu, sed, vereor, nimis expedite sculpit neque satis umbras distinguit. Volebam hic sculpere aere vestro. Negavit id vos admissurum Rosénius junior. Itaque retinui iconem. Flos omnino se habuit uti dixi. Exstant ejus perfectissimae ad microscopium factae imagines. Proxime Verbenae accedit calyce diversus campaniformi. Verbenas maluissem ab Europaeis ordinare et Europaearum similibus; ita mansissent cum suis sodalibus Ringentibus Royenii, cum quibus forte etiam Salvia retineri potuisset, cujus libramenta in multis speciebus hinc magnum, inde parvum, loculamentum pulveriferum gerunt. Synonymorum difficilis labor est, nisi ex omni regione siccas plantas habeas, ex quibus de auctorum stirpibus judicium fiat. Is defectus invitissimo mihi inposuit, ut multas pro varietatibus subjunxerim, quas sensim invenio diversas esse. Itaque monitum Te volo, ut omnia recenseas synonyma. Descriptiones vero ad naturam factae facile fallere nequeunt neque plantae ipsae, in quibus cavi sollicitus, ne quidquam dubii miscerem non monens. In Tuis, pace Tua dixerim, adhuc plures species legitimae expunguntur, quod vellem in alia editione Sueciae Tuae florae mutares. Sentio enim nos expungendo veras plantas maximum vulnus rei herbariae inferre eamque ad priorem paupertatem reducere, unde egregiorum virorum maximis laboribus emersit. Non ignoro etiam hic arbitrarii multum superesse, ut, quid species, quid varietas sit, non possimus ubique separare certe absque cultu et plurimis obs[ervationibu]s. Phalangia quatuor albo flore distinctissima habeo, quorum tria possent, si cultura abesset, pro una specie haberi. Sic in aliis. Nihil ego valde in botanica feci praeter excursiones et recensiones characterum in horto. Anno proximo ad libros redibo. Animalia utique nunquam collegi. Obruerer alioquin varietate studiorum. Anatome enim princeps mihi labor est et Physiologia C[orporis] H[umani]. His majorem partem anni dare cogor. Ab hujusmodi distractione Te tutum praestitit fortuna. Si tamen in patriam rediero, abjectis omnibus deliciis rei herbariae et recensendo operi Helvetico vitae teram reliquias. Ecce imaginem meam, in qua nihil est, cur ambias. Nummum Tuum gratus exspectabo et, si placet, inseri curabo libro, quem collega meus, Köhlerus, edit sub titulo Munzbelustigungen. Ibi historia aliqua viri additur, cujus nummus excuditur. Sed non possum, quin pergam a Te stirpes siccas septentrionales petere, si semina molesta sunt. Nihil est, quare moreris. Nam et ego miseram Alpinas et paratissimus sim mittere Germanicas rariores per mea itinera passim collectas, quarum aliquas Ruppianas certe ex natalibus locis puto Te non habere. Occasio, si non alia, posset esse per Rosénium seniorem aut per bibliopolam Kiesewetterum vestrum. Nondum vidi Seguierium. Lentius enim appellunt libri Italici neque alia botanica. Blakstonium ex Anglia propediem exspecto. Ne charta alba supersit, aliqua addam ex botanicis. Culpas me, quod Granadillam subjunxerim Cucurbitaceis. Nam quo teste inserui? Ego vero, etiam si inseruissem, non peccassem. Accedit in utroque calyx petalis connatus quinis, fructus mollis, habitus. Tubarum etiam similitudo adest. Omnia vero eadem esse in classe aliqua naturali non est necesse. Nam et Melothria sexus habet conjunctos. Trientalis nomen adjectivum est. Herba trientalis, &c. inquit Cordus. Gentianas duas sub nomine pratensis fl[ore] lanuginoso conjunxi vere diversas. Earum utraque fauce est ornamento piloso instructa. Sed alteri calyx campaniformis est, alteri irregularis ex duobus majoribus, duobus minoribus segmentis. Utraque hic et in vicinia provenit. In Stokholmiensibus et itinere Tuo Rubeolam fl[ore] trifido confundis cum Rubeola quadrifolia levi T[ournefortii]. Diversae sunt. Illa cubitalis, lana, nigra, perpetuo trifido flore eoque in ramis laxe disposito. Haec humillima, dura, fruticosior, flore magis umbellato semper 4-fido. Illa in paucis Germaniae sylvis; haec ubique ad vias fere provenit. Illa vestras est, haec calidior paulo, neque Gottingae, sed Jenae et in Helvetia nascitur. Quae de Valantia scribis et Aparine non ego ob sexus plantas facile separarem. Causa sterilitatis quorumdam florum in Aparine sem[ine] saccharato est ipsa forte seminum magnitudo. Nam sic etiam in umbelliferis observo cum megalospermis multos flores mares misceri. Myrrhidem in Ruppio pictam diversiss[imam] esse confirmavi et semen mittam. Lychnis sylv[estris] alba simplex omnino aeque ac purpurea dioica est. Geranium moschatum et myrrhidis folio forte varietates essent. Sed ab eo Geranium Creticum acu longiss[imo] et coriandri f[olio] acu longiss[imo] longe differunt, etsi pentandra sint. Enormiter enim his major seminum tota fabrica et flos nihil simile habet neque ita, ut in illo myrrhidis f[lore], irregularis est. Thalictri vestri minimi faetidi semen valde desidero. Commelinae luteae hoc anno colligam. Aloe omne genus florum producit. Solo consentit habitu. Typhoides gr[amen] spica instar limae dentata est mera varietas. Rhea duo, vulgare et Sibiricum, omnino differunt. Acetosa mont[ana] lato ari f[olio] diversa planta est a vulgari et revera conjunctionem praeproperam. Sed Tu vale et porro me ama, qui certe nullam occasionem de Te merendi desero. Vide in bibl[iotheque] rais[onnée] recensionem itineris Oelandici post Floram Tuam lectam scriptam et quae sequitur Stokholmiensium actorum. Etiam hodie membranam pupillarum in duobus oculis praeparavi et demonstravi in recens nato. Dabam d[ie] 17 oct[obris] 1746.
Previous reference number:
L0740
