It is almost a year since Linnaeus’s letter of 16 May 1751 [this letter has not come down to us] reached Balthazar Johan Buchwald carried by Buchwald’s loved pupil Jörgen Tyge Holm on his return from Uppsala. Buchwald thanks Linnaeus for it and reports that he has shown it to the King. Presumably helped by Linnaeus’s letter, Holm had been sent to Norway about six months earlier to take care of a grave outbreak of epidemic syphilis among the inhabitants living in the neighbourhood of the mines. He was also to study the natural history of the region, and Buchwald expected him back in September when he hoped to be able to send Holm to more distant regions. Georg Christian von Oeder, a pupil of Albrecht von Haller , has been appointed extraordinary Professor of Botany, assisted by some influential patrons. The faculty had earlier refused to accept him as a professor, as he had put forward an inferior dissertation. Buchwald is sure that Holm will be a better botanist than Oeder. Linnaeus will be able to know more about this matter from the person who brings this letter, the Norwegian Peder Ascanius, who wants to learn medicine from Linnaeus. Buchwald hopes that Linnaeus will receive him as a pupil. Ascanius carries with him a number of dissertations, which Buchwald had managed to gather with some haste, and a specimen of the tree Musa. Buchwald hopes that it will succeed better than the former ones.