Illustri viro D[omino] D[octori] Linnaeo S[alutem] P[lurimam]
A[lbertus] Haller.
Sero, sed accepi tamen Tuas 7 Januarii datas.[1] Semina notavi mirorque Te quae Lubecam misi non accepisse. Quae vero Tu priori anno promisisti semina et libellos exoptatissimos et plantulas siccas septentrionalium omnes mittere potes Collegae Tuo Rosénio, qui Lubecam deferri curabit. Frater ejus Viri, ut nosti, nobiscum nunc vivit.[2]
De Alliis mallem sententiam Tuam nosse. Cepae certe duae vetant separari. Si plures species habuissem, opusculum dedissem utilius. Sed nemo dudum quidquam mihi misit cogorque meo succo vivere. Interim Tu me melius nosti, quanta prius[a] fuerit specierum Allii confusio etiam apud optimos. Orchidum nunc historiam dare conabor oneratissimarum falsis speciebus. Si orchidem sabuletorum Seelandiae et[b] calceolum Laponicum mittere posses, gratissimam rem faceres. Icones etiam aliquot addam. Nova mea vero per Rosenium mittam et semina Amaranthi siculi, Chamelaeae, Borraginoidis, Verbesinae. Commelinae flavo flore forte plantam mittere praestiterit.
Omnia Tua erunt acceptissima bonis. Germaniae floram meditor loco novae editionis stirpium Helveticarum, cujus exemplaria pauca supersunt.[3] Utilissimae essent Burserianae, sed quomodo perlustrari poterunt?[4]
Societati certo mittam aliqua. Nunc obruor laboribus Anatomicis moram nullam patientibus.
Anandriam non puto me habere, nisi sit Jacobaea Cacaliae f[olio].[5] Sed ea nondum mihi floruit. Hac aestate excurram in arenosa Collensia[6] & Torfacea plantularum causa. Novos libros ad rem nostram nullos vidi nisi Phytobasani Col[onnae] splendidam novam editionem.[7]
Tu vero vale! Frequentius rescribe et me porro ama! Possemus cum utriusque utilitate de re herbaria commercium alere certe de Germanicis aut Sibiricis plantis earumque characteribus. Amethystinae novum genus dabo descriptio[nem].
Vale!
D[abam][c] III[d] Febr[uarii] 1746.
[Address] A Monsieur / Monsieur Linnaeus Professeur / ordinaire et membre de divers / Academies / a Upsal
TEXTUAL NOTES
a. MS1 prius
b. MS1 et
c. MS1 D[abam]
d. MS1 III
EXPLANATORY NOTES
1. See Linnaeus to Albrecht von Haller, 7 January 1746 o.s., 15 January 1746 n.s..
2. He is Eberhard Rosén, ennobled Rosenblad in 1770, the brother of Nils Rosén von Rosenstein. He visited Haller in 1745-1746.
3. Haller, Enumeratio methodica stirpium Helvetiae indigenarum.
4. Joachim Burser’s herbarium consisting of 25 volumes was taken as war-booty in 1658 on Själland and was given to Uppsala University in 1666.
5. In the beginning of the 1740’s Russian botanists had discovered a strange composite in Sibiria. This plant was said to be without stamens and was consequently named Anandria. Johann Georg Siegesbeck rejoiced. He thought that he finally had found a fundamental piece of evidence against Linnaeus’s sexual system, which stated that plants only could reproduce themselves through stamens and pistils. But Linnaeus was convinced that this simply could not be the case. On 9 August 1745 n.s. Johann Georg Gmelin writes to Linnaeus that he impatiently looks forward to hear what Linnaeus will think of the Anandria Sigesbeckioides (see Gmelin to Linnaeus). When Sten Carl Bielke visited St Petersburg Linnaeus constantly urged him to get hold of some seeds of Anandria. Eventually he succeeded and the seeds were immediately forwarded to Uppsala. In the beginning Linnaeus could not make them blossom, but when they finally did he was certain of his diagnosis. In Dissertatio botanica de Anandria (1745) he settles his account with Siegesbeck. The plant definitely had stamens, though difficult to discover, and was found to belong to the genus of Tussilago (see Linnaeus to Albrecht von Haller, 23 August 1746 o.s., 4 September 1746 n.s.). See also Jönsson, “Odium botanicorum. The Polemics between Carl Linnaeus and Johann Georg Siegesbeck”.
6. I.e, Colne, Essex, Great Britain.
7. Colonna, Phytobasanos sive Plantarum aliquot historia.