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/6/90
Archival level:
Item
Date:
1744
Placement:
Volume 6: 180-181
Extent:
180-181
Language:
la
Description:
Albrecht von Haller would like to send things to Linnaeus through Johan Fredrik König at Hamburg. He has forwarded Linnaeus’s letter to Paul Heinrich Gerhard Moehring. Haller is happy that his works do not altogether displease Linnaeus. He has corrected some errors in Heinrich Bernhard Ruppe’s Flora Jenensis. Haller’s little garden is somewhat richer than his catalogue. The main stock of his plants that grow wild come from the surrounding mountains. Most of Haller’s exotic plants were supplied by Adriaan van Royen, Christian Gottlieb Ludwig and Johann Georg Gmelin. Haller has finished his work on Herman Boerhaave’s Praelectiones and looks forward to receiving Linnaeus’s Lachesis Lapponica. He would also like Linnaeus’s dissertations and Acta literaria et scientiarum Sueciae (since 1738), which can be be given to Engenhagen in Lübeck. In return Haller will send his edition of Ruppe and seeds. He would particularly like Linnaeus’s Flora Svecica. On Mount Altstolberg Haller has found Johann Thal’s Symphytum petraeum on the spot where it was first discovered by Thal. It is very close to Saponaria but different from Joseph Pitton de Tournefort’s Lychnis alpina linifolia multiflora perampla radice. Haller has seen a lot of Rubeola flore trifido and Allium montanum, Narcissi folio, minus, and a species of Porrum with grassy leaves as well as a species (or perhaps a variety only) of Tragoselinum with long leaves. Lorenz Heister is writing a dissertation, De Cydoniis, against Linnaeus. Moehring has criticised Haller’s ferns. Haller will illustrate a few of the more uncommon plants in his Flora Jenensis. The Violae, commonly called matronales, originates from the Hungarian Hesperis. When brought into a garden its flowers become umbellate and the stem erect. He classifies Thelypteris (Ruppe) by the “seeds” opening at the margin. He has the posthumous works of Giacomo Zanoni. Many of Gmelin’s plants have flowered at Haller’s: two kinds of Delphinium with long spurs, the yellow Valeriana, two Cyani with yellow flowers and four or five Jacobaeae. He will go to his native Alps in 1745 and to Valais, where the Xeranthemum is as common as the daisies in Switzerland.
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Transcription:
Viro Celeberrimo, D[omino] Carolo Linnaeo, Prof[essori] Regio, S[alutem] p[lurimam] d[icit] A[lbertus] Haller. Ad literas Tuas superiores dudum respondi. Semina, quae praesto erant, misi, sed vereor, ne serius ea accipias. Neodoctor enim, cui tradideram, non recta via, sed per ambages varias Lubecam petiit. Si efficere posses, ut Koenigius, qui Hamburgi Regis Vestri res agit, Tua curaret, mitterem eo et omnia, quae penes me sunt, Tecum communicarem. Moehringianas etiam literas bene curavi. Quod mea opera non Tibi penitus displiceat, gratum est, magno harum rerum judici. Veritatem amo, ordinem in studiis meis observo, sed, fateor, non eam habui abundantiam plantarum, quae ad opus meum requirebatur. Nolui tamen diutius premere, ne intermorerer, quod, quin accideret, proxime adfuit. Errores meos & defectus facile adgnosco. Aliquos etiam in flora Ruppiania, quae nunc sub prelo est, correxi. Hortulus aliquanto catalogo ditior est. Nulla deest nisi quas in appendice deesse indicavi. Quas periisse addidi, aliquas recuperavi. Basis in spontaneis est, quos undique ex montanis coacervavi. Exoticas fere a Royenio, Ludwigio ac Gmelino habeo; reliquae vix prodierunt. De obs[ervationibu]s rescripsi. An velitis cum figuris? Si mavultis absque figuris continuo aut novarum plantarum aliquas descriptiones mittam aut alia, quae mereri videbuntur. Boerhaavianum opus perfeci. De diaeta, &c. nihil addidi, ne et nimium opus fieret et ego in eas res incederem, in quibus minus valeo. Tua ad Lachesin Laponicam pulcherrima exspectamus. Ficum nondum examinavi. Paucas arbores habeo, sed conabor. Diss[ertatione]s Tuae gratissimae essent. Possunt etiam dari Lubecam apud D[ominum] Engenhagen, Med[icin]ae D[octorem], tum Acta Suecica ab a[nno] 1738; eo enim usque ea possideo. Ego vicissim mittam eadem via Ruppium et si aliqua semina desiderata maturescent. Tua etiam erunt gratissimas [sic] & super omnia flora Suecana. Nuper redii ex itinere Hercynico. In M[onte] Altstolberg reperi Symphytum petraeum Thalii in loco originali inventoris. Saponaria est proxima, L[ychn]i[s] alp[ina] linif[olia], multifl[ora] perampla rad[ice] T[ournefortii] diversa. Si meae priores obs[ervatione]s obtinent, petalis ovatis minime cordatis, foliis non ita heteromallis, corolla tota minore. Tum Rubeolam flore trifido abunde, Allium mont[anum], narcissi f[olio], minus, Porri speciem, non dictam recentioribus, graminifoliam, staminibus alterne trifidis, bulbiferam, Tragoselini sp[eciem] an varietatem foliis praelongis et alia adfinia elegantia legi. Haec omnia eruta in hortum soleo conferre, sed multa pereunt. In Flora Jenensi icones dabo aliquas plantarum minus cognitarum. Hesperis illa Pannonica certo origo est violarum, ut vulgo vocant, matronalium. In hortos etiam translata pariter flores umbellatos, caulem erectum habet. Dabo depictam. Aliorum bot[anice]s labores nullos novi. Heisterus de cydoni[i]s scribit diss[ertationem] tibi obpositam. Obsecravi, ne esset Tibi molestus; nihil obtinui. Moehringius nescio quae contra Filices meas dedit neque mentem est adsecutus. Ego enim Filicen s[ive] Thelypterian R[uppii] non definio ab orbiculis orae parallelis, sed a semine in margine effloresc[ente]. Dillenius silet. Posthuma Zanoni habeo commoda ob loc[os] natales, plantas Europaeas minus notas. Ex Gmelinianis plurimae apud me florent. Delphinia duo longis calcaribus, Valeriana lutea, Cyani duo luteo flore, Jacobeae 4 aut 5 aliae. Nihil his mihi gratius. Oh, si praeteritos ..., adirem certe Galliam Narbonensem ibique indigenas quaererem. Sed patrias tamen a[nno] 1745 repetam Alpes, quas nondum vidi, & beatam Valesiam, in qua Xeranthemum aeque frequens est quam bellis hic esse potest. [address] A Monsieur / Monsieur Linnaeus / Professeur Royal de l’Academie / d’Upsal / a Upsal / en Suede
Previous reference number:
L0597
Condition note:
seal tear
