During his six weeks’ stay in Constantinople, Peter Forsskål received one letter from Linnaeus [this letter has not come down to us] and wrote three himself [Forsskål to Linnaeus, 1 August 1761{L2949}, and two from 4 September 1761{L2965} and {L5426}]. Two of these were sent directly and the third open letter was sent via Adam Gottlob Moltke. Forsskål had the King’s permission to send the seeds of 74 species, which was taken care of by Gustav Celsing to be forwarded via St. Petersburg to Stockholm and Pehr WilhelmWargentin. Forsskål left Constantinople in September and arrived two weeks later in Alexandria after a two days’ call in Rhodes. From Alexandria Forsskål wrote to Linnaeus [Forsskål to Linnaeus, 20 October 1761{L2976}] via Livorno.
He will now send the continuation, seeds 75-201, to Constantinople and is enclosing a list of them [fol. 251]. Forsskål is especially proud of the seeds of Mecca balsam. In several cases he is in doubt as to their classification so Linnaeus’s judgement will be necessary. Forsskål will have to stay in Egypt until August as there are no ships available until then. It is winter in Egypt and quite cold, and the rooms are not heated. He asks Linnaeus to send two copies of his letters, one via Livorno to Jean François Marion, in Alexandria and one via Vienna to Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler] in Constantinople. Then perhaps at least one will reach its destination.
With the King’s [Frederik V] permission, Forsskål also sends as many seeds he can, besides to Copenhagen and Uppsala, to Johannes Burmann in Amsterdam, François Boissier de La Croix de Sauvages in Montpellier, Bernard de Jussieu in Paris and Philip Miller in Chelsea [the Chelsea Physic Garden ]. He has found three new genera: Suaeda, Micrelium and Gregiceps [these three genera are described in Flora aegyptica-arabica]. Forsskål does not want them to be named after him; if Linnaeus would show him this grace in the future, it would be a great honour. In that case he would prefer to give his name to a bulbuous plant that can grow and be cultivated in Sweden.Gregiceps seems to be related to Echinops and Suaeda to Chenopodium.
It will be a pleasure for Forsskål to demonstrate once his dried plants to Linnaeus. He sends his regards to his patrons and friends.