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/6/87
Archival level:
Item
Date:
19 September 1740
Placement:
Volume 6: 175-176
Extent:
175-176
Language:
la
Description:
In his previous letter Linnaeus was disappointed at not having obtained the position to which he aspired, but Albrecht von Haller is sure that Linnaeus’s time will soon come. Haller used to correspond with Nils Rosén von Rosenstein. Haller wants Linnaeus to read his publications. The Praelectiones Boerhaavianae have been composed too hastily. His account of his journey is unfinished. His (manuscript of) Cryptogamia is at Leiden. In the spring he will work on the apetalous classes. He has also finished half of the third volume of the Praelectiones Boerhaavianae. No Veronicae remain, but Linnaeus shall have the Pediculares. Note the little branch of Cherleria. It is akin to the Alsine fugax in habit and structure of the tube, but differs in its quinary number and in the dry petals. Haller will send the Salvinia with the booklets. He has still not seen Blasia or Valisneria. Nothing is now said about publishing the posthumous writings of Charles Plumier. Haller is pleased to have been honoured by Linnaeus in Fundamenta botanica. The seeds of Melampyrum do not grow well, but he will try. Both species of Melampyrum grow together so the soil is irrelevant. But several plants have proportionately larger flowers than usual. Pyrola has no erect stamens and is irregular in posture. The style is in this case perfectly straight. Johannes Jacobus Huber’s account of his tour will never be published. Haller desires Olof Rudbeck the Elder’s book as well as Johan Browallius’s. Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch has also written against Johann Georg Siegesbeck. The Equisetum elasticum is the common arvense, whose flowering scape has no leaves. Haller is of the opinion that the capsules of the Equiseta are male organs. Haller has no botanical news. Linnaeus has seen a copy of Johann Jakob Dillenius’s Historia muscorum. The Germans have published nothing except a miserable description of Phellandrium and another of Piper by Lorenz Heister. He has not seen Jean François Séguier’s Bibliotheca botanica. Haller has received the thirteenth volume of the little valued Phytanthoza-iconographia. Haller has increased the number of Fungi illustrations and established some new genera and distinguished the classes of Embolus, Spaerocephalus and Agaricus. Adriaan van Royen has promised Haller many plants. Haller hopes to be able to visit the forests of Hercynia to gather mosses and seeds. The study of the Fungi is thriving at Göttingen. He has detected a very curious elastic motion in Peziza vulgaris sordide alba. The Clathroides are very elastic and their dust is expelled spontaneously. He has discovered no flowers of the Fungi.
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Sent to location:
[Stockholm, Sweden]
Transcription:
Celeberrimo Botanico, D[omino] D[octori] Linnaeo, S[alutem] p[lurimam] d[icit] Alb[ertus] Haller. Gratiores fuerunt Tuae, quas post longum silentium accepi, et gratissimae fuissent, nisi inoptabilem nuncium adferrent Te desiderata et dudum merita dignitate excidisse, quam quidem jacturam alio honore reparatam iri omnino confido, etsi rarissimi sint Botanicorum honores. Cum D[omino] Rosén olim commercium literarium mihi fuit. Eo etiam adjutore in Societatem, quae tunc florebat, admissus sum, sed de Botanicis nunquam ullus mihi sermo fuit. Maluissem prius legisses opuscula mea, deinde sententiam Tuam docuisses. Praelectiones Boerhaavianae nimis festinatae sunt, et vix ultra quatuor menses hybernos uni volumini licet inpendere, quos perpetua turbat Anatome. Hac quae nuper incepit hyeme XI cadavera secui. Iter et ipsum immaturius est, sed Graecia perit exspectando. Cryptogamia tota Leidae est. Redeunte vere sequentur apetalae classes atque, si DEUS adjuverit, totum opus perficietur ante novam hyemem. Praelectionum vero volumen 3 ad dimidiam partem perduxi. Veronicae nullae supersunt. Sed Pediculares, si quae erit via, curabo, ut habeas. Ecce Cherleriae ramulum. Est autem adfinis Alsinae fugaci, habitu, tubis fabrica, sed differt numero quinario, etc. atque petalis siccis, quibus stamina adhaerescunt. Salviniam mittam cum libellis. Blasiam et Valisneriam nondum vidi. De Plumerii posthumis nunc siletur. Humanissima est mei memoria in fundamentis Tuis, quae obtinui. Melampyra sata, ut nosti, aegre perveniunt, sed tentabo. Nascitur certe conjunctim utraque species adeoque nulla a Solo varietas est. Sed plures sunt plantae flore magno absque proportionis in foliis mutatione et de iis omnibus statuendum erit, Serpylla, Calaminthae, etc. Staminibus erectis quidem pyrola non est; semper sunt inordinata. Tuba v[ero] rectissima, nihil hic vulgatius. Huberi Iter nunquam prodibit. Botanica, unde nihil lucri speratur, deseruit. Rudbekium nunquam vidi, esset donorum exoptatissimum. Gleditschius etiam scripsit in miserum Siegesbeckium, sed non abundat observationibus. Browallius gratus esset. Equisetum elasticum est vulgare illud scapis florigeris aphyllis, arvense. Capsulas equiseti pro masculis organis habeo, inter quae feminae miscentur, uti in filicibus. Nova Botanica vix habeo. Vidisti specimina muscorum DILLENII. Germani nihil edunt praeter miseram descriptionem Phellandrii & alteram piperis Heisterianam, quam nondum legi. Seguierii bibl[liothecam] Botanicam non vidi. Phytanthozaiconographiae tomum accepi XIII paulo meliorem prioribus, sed semper malum et indignum splendore suo. Ego icones fungorum auxi mirifice. Genera nova condidi. Emboli, Sphaerocephali et Agaricorum classes distinxi. Tabulae adhuc 4 sculpendae supersunt, in quibus fere 30 novi musci, longe melius picti quam priores, aucti etiam lente vitrea. Plantae vix 4 sculpendae reliquae sunt. Hic in horto characteres conscripsi, sed tempus conferendi omnino defuit. Hoc anno spero plantas mihi nascituras mille atque perpetua incrementa sumturum hortum meum. Multa promittit humanissimus Royenius. In sylvam Hercyniam, si vires supererunt, iter suscipiam ob muscos maxime et semina. Hic sterilis est botanice praeterquam in fungis, quibus abundamus. In Peziza vulgari sordide alba sessilis motum elasticum pulcherrimum vidi. Constringitur sponte tota planta et pulverem cum sibilo quodam in altum spargit, qui procul dubio seminalis est. Clathroide etiam elastica sunt et sponte pollen movetur, sed lentius. Flores a[utem] Fungorum nullos vidi. Haec fere erant, quae nunc fuerunt dicenda. Tu vero cum Tua vale et age feliciter! Dabam Gottingae die 19 Sept[embris] 1740. [address] A Monsieur / Monsieur Linnaeus Professeur / en Botanique et Medecin / de la Flotte / A Stokholm
Previous reference number:
L0399
Condition note:
seal tear
