Linnaeus reports that he has been ill for most of the year. Now that he begins to feel better, his desk is full of letters to answer, and he takes Domenico Vandelli as one of the first. Linnaeus had published a dissertation during the previous autumn on the issue of the nature of fungi [Linnaeus refers to the Dissertatio academica mundum invisibilem breviter delineatura].
The first part of the twelfth edition of the Systema naturae [Systema naturae, 12th edition] is ready, and Vandelli can see how correctly Linnaeus had treated the information received from Vandelli.
The second part, on the plants, is half ready, and there, Linnaeus gives a description of the new plant Vandellia, found in the Island of St. Tomé.
Linnaeus is eager to know how Vandelli fares and how work on the Portuguese flora progresses [Linnaeus refers to Vandellis work with the Florae lusitanicae et brasiliensis specimen]. Many scholars are eagerly waiting to see what Portugal may bring.
Linnaeus reports on the recent appointments of some of his pupils. Adam Kuhn had become professor in Philadelphia. Johannes Beckman had been appointed professor in Natural history at Göttingen. Johan Zoega had got the job of demonstrator of plants in the botanical garden of Copenhagen.
In the first part of Systema naturae there are 6,500 animals.
For the second part, Linnaeus has added fifty genera of plants, among them the Dracaena Vandellii.
Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber has started to publish drawings of grasses, and intends to cover them all [Linnaeus refers to the Beschreibung der Gräser].
Linnaeus’s son [Carl Linnaeus the Younger] has sent the third of his Decuria rariorum plantarum [Linnaeus refers to the Decas prima [et secunda] plantarum rariorum horti Upsaliensis] to the printer.
Johan Ernst Gunnerus describes animals and zoophytes from the northern Arctic in Acta Nidarosiensia [Der Drontheimischen Gesellschaft Schriften, journal of the Royal Norwegian society of sciences and letters, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab].
Linnaeus forwards greetings from the members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala [Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala].
The Erythrina crista galli that Vandelli had been kind to send has died after Linnaeus had tended it for three months. When Linnaeus examined it he saw that the specimen had almost no roots; they had been taken away by Vandelli’s gardener in the packing. So it was no wonder it did not grow.
Linnaeus can not write more, since he is too tired.