Johan Peter Falck has sent seeds to Linnaeus through Johann Beckmann and later by Christian Emanuel Hoppius. They were partly from Russian plants and partly from other available plants. Falck is convinced that the first delivery reached Linnaeus, but more doubtful about the last since he has heard nothing from Hoppius. Falck has already written about the pots with Acer tataricum and Amygdalus nana delivered by Beckmann. The gardener informed Falck about a strange Asian habit that, when trees or bulbs are requested from abroad, the customs often let the material stay in the custom-house until it is ruined.
All this time Falck has been expecting seeds from Siberia and other places, but so far in vain. In spite of all efforts Falck is tempted to believe that he is surrounded with the wrong people. In the countryside there is no special person to contact. The pharmacists and surgeons whom Falck trusted have deceived him. He is well aware that they do not have the slightest insight in these matters and forgives them with all his heart. But Falck cannot forgive them their lack of the slightest natural curiosity. He had not expected other plants than those he knew by habitat. He had given the Russian names and short common descriptions they could understand and comparisons to other common plants they should know.
Only one of the surgeons has sent a parcel with woolly seeds [with long hairs], which he suggested could be used as cotton. But nothing else had been sent from the plant itself. However, with the enclosed seeds Linnaeus will be able to tell what it is, and Falck, most humbly, will await the answer. Falck wonders whether it could be Johann Amman’s Clematitis erecta, with narrow leaves etc. p. 82 no. 108, or perhaps a Pulsatilla.
Falck mentions a reformist priest who went to Tanatoff. He was asked to collect seeds from the plants of the region. He promised much but brought back almost nothing, only some seeds of Glycyrrhiza echinata. He said he had packages of dry plants and seeds but that everything was lost during the voyage, just as what happened to David Pontin, including a newly discovered species of Salicornia, branched and with tetragonal stalk. He had made a drawing of a Marsilea natans in his diary and according to the details of fructification it seems correct. The other species is possibly from Astrakhan. He is interested, willing to learn and could be useful in the future.
At this priest’s, Falck had the opportunity to see two new floras, Flora Gedensis [Tentamen Florae Gedanensis] and Flora Borussica. Patricius Reger [Gottfried Reyger] in Danzig published the first according to Linnaeus’s method. Johann Christoph Wulff in Königsberg published the other flora after Louis Gérards’s natural method. After a hasty glance it seemed to Falck that Wulff had enlarged his work by including variations from Caspar Bauhin’s, Pinax theatri botanici. This author has also published Ictyologia and Amphibiologia Borussica. These books are the most recent ones Falck has seen for a long time.
The orangery, the small greenhouse and the cold frames, etc have been completed just before the holiday that autumn.
The constructions are all made of wood in such a way that Falck can take care of his valuable plant material. Falck still remembers Linnaeus’s promise of a small donation from the University Botanical Garden in Uppsala. At the same time Falck admits that he does not deserve much since he has not been able to deliver much, with the excuse that he has problems with his Commissioners.
Falck sends his most humble regards to Linnaeus’s wife [Sara Elisabet Linnaea], his daughters [Elisabeth Christina Linnaea, Louisa Linnaea, Sara Christina Linnaea, Sophia Linnaea] and Linnaeus.
P.S. Falck asks Linnaeus if he could be as kind as to send the mail via the Advisor of the Court, Johann Georg Model, at the Imperial Pharmacy on Billion Street. Falck believes that the leaves enclosed from Assow of Morus tatarica are correctly named. The tree is named “Tut” in Russian. He had also hoped for the fruits but they were destroyed by bad preparation. He has asked for new ones next summer.