Anders Sparrman is happpy to have an opportunity to send descriptions and a parcel of dried plants to Linnaeus. He hopes that the plants and insects he sent a month ago have reached their destination. Unfortunately, tedious tasks like teaching a dozen children and socializing with foreign visitors from the ships, not to mention the frequent eating and drinking, prevent him from indulging in his main interest: botany. His patron and his family move around a lot which is disastrous for his herbarium. The exploration of the Cape would take more than one botanist. Generously enough, the East India Company has promised him free passage. With Linnaeus’s influence, Sparrman could certainly have royal support, as Gustav III has always supported science. Sparrman would not be afraid to go to the Kaffirs. Having observed snakes and scorpions, Sparrman now feels safe, dressed in socks and shoes when walking around outdoors. There is little hope that a ship will go to Europe from here in a year’s time.
P. S.1 In Vires plantarum Fredrik Hasselquist does not mention all natural orders. Sparrman asks Linnaeus for supplementary rules so he can be more efficient and spot local plants that may be useful in medicine.
He has asked Carl Peter Thunberg to report to Linnaeus on Portulaca arborescens and Sagittarius.
P. S. 2 Sparrman advices Linnaeus how to send post to South Africa if no Swedish ships are available. For example Linnaeus might write to England, from there ships are leaving for South Africa in February, and from Holland ships are leaving in April for the same destination.
P. S. 3 Sparrman, in his turn, hopes that Linnaeus will approve of that Sparrman will write and send collections through the envoys in Amsterdam and London. This letter Sparrman will adress to Gerhard Gustaf Adam von Nolcken in London with an accompanying letter to him, and hopes that he will forward it [to Linnaeus] quickly, the letter by post and the little parcel with some ship. The last parcel [that Sparrman sent] was addressed to Jonas Malm Ericsson at the Swedish East India Company through William Wilson with the ship Granville, navigated by Captain Burnett Abercromby. As the chief mate Dundace, who received the letter, seemed to be an honest man, Sparrman hopes that everything was done in a right way.
P. S. 4 If there is a new genus of plants among those Sparrman sent to Linnaeus, he would wish that it could be named after Carl Gustaf Ekeberg for all he has done to promote botany [Sparrman later published an article about "Ekebergia", "Ett nytt genus i växt-riket uptäckt och kalladt Ekebergia capensis"]. Sparrman will send seeds of Antholyza maura. If Lars Broberg does not succeed in making the grow, he will have an enemy in Sparrman!