Clas Alströmer is very late with answering to Linnaeus undated and unsigned letter [this letter has not come down to us], which he received when still in Rome. very eloquently expresses his annoyance about the mishandling during transportation of all the botanical and zoological specimens and samples he has taken the trouble to collect, organise and pack, before sending them to Linnaeus. It seems as if Linnaeus should have replied with a list of the names of the specimens, but in Alströmer’s view the plants [in Linnaeus’s list] are in great disorder and do not correspond to the numbers Alströmer has given to the copies he kept by himself. Most curious is, that he finds some plants, which he has not sent, and a great number of plants are gone! He wants Linnaeus to find out what ahs happened to the collection he sent, so that Alströmer, he adds ironically, knows how he should be grateful to. He suggests that a copy of the new edition of Species plantarum should be sent to him, addressed to either the Swedish Embassy ther,e or to his banker Tourton & Baur in Paris, but not with the post. He also wants 20 or 30 copies of the dissertation Planta Alströmeria. His brother August Alströmer will meet the cost.
He is also irritated that the seeds from the hills of Granada should have been spoilt. However he does not trust the Water test. To the contrary, several years ago he had sowed floating acorns, hazelnuts, beans, peas, turnip seeds and others, of which some had grown as well as the sinking ones.
Alströmer has sent a number of fish, and to facilitate for Linnaeus to examine these the best would be that Linnaeus order the whole jar [with fish] to be sent to Örebro, and from there seaway to Stockholm or Uppsala. Linnaeus is welcome to take what he wants as the large jar contains several pairs. The shells and the corals etc Alströmer will communicate himself at his return to Sweden.
He has handed out all his Alstroemiae seeds. He does not know whether it is annual or perennial but he inclines towards annual.
He is pleased by Petter Jonas Bergius’s promotion but would have preferred Jonas Theodor Fagraeus.
Alströmer agrees with Linnaeus that the would-be Bulbocodium is probably a Crocus even if the Stigma indicates something else. He says that Giovanni Francesco Maratti in Rome wants to make a new genus called Romulia always with 6 stamens. Alströmer has tried to make him understand that two specimens alone do not make a new genus.
Valisneria is not to be seen around Florence but can be found at Pisa.
Phytolacca dioica are used as avenue trees in Sevilla. Only one female tree was to be found at Portmarie. The tree was large so Alströmer does not know the number of stamens. In his letter of 23 July {L2924} he had sent a whole raceme of the ripe fruit and wants to know if it has arrived.
As a Linnaean, Alströmer is well received. Linnaeus is of course famous, but not because of his true merits, because people don’t know of Linnaeus’s scientific work of which they are badly supplied. Linnaeus should see to it that his writings were distributed. Alströmer has to fight many a joust in the Society of Botany of Florence into which he has been elected as member. The worst thing is to have to repeat what Linnaeus clearly has laid out in Critica botanica as well as in Philosophia botanica .
He has little time to visit this most interesting country, so rich in biological and other sights and monuments.
Alströmer has met with Giovanni Targioni, a learned man, who has published Pietro Antonio Micheli’s, Hortus Florentinus [Alströmer means the Catalogus plantarum]. He has bought the entire Micheli’s collection of plants, and many manuscripts including drawings and already engraved copper plates. Alströmer has also seen a peculiarity of Targioni’s: the skeleton of a crane. Targioni also has petrified bones and teeth from elephants.
Big Gleditsia inermis trees are also to be found here. The Florentines were ignorant and thought them to be an Acacia, until Alströmer informed them about the truth.
Alströmer is sending Mandragorae semina, Platanus, Romulia? also a few seeds of a Pulmonaria? gnota, that has certain resemblance of a Cerinthe.
Alströmer also writes that he has sent a bunch of unsorted plants from Rome. He asks Linnaeus to go through them and save them for him until he has returned, because Alströmer has had no time to sort them or sort out duplicates. If Linnaeus permits, Alströmer in the future would like to send all specimens in this way.
Alströmer has collected stones from Vesuvius and other volcanoes around Naples.He wants to know if the third volume of the Systema naturae, Regnum Minerale, has been published already, or, if not, when it is to be printed [Systema naturae, 10th edition; the 10th edition was published in two volumes, “Animalia” 1758 and “Vegetabilia” 1759. The third volume, “Mineralia” was never published].
He has roughly the same questions about Systema morburum [Alströmer means the dissertation, Genera morborum, with a new edition in 1763, Genera morborum and he wants to know how many volumes of Amoenitates academicae have been published.
If the new edition of Fauna Svecica, 2nd edition is ready, Alströmer wants a copy.
How far has the new edition of Species proceeded [Alströmer means the Species plantarum]?
The Italians are too idle and publish very little.
His address will from now on be Tourton & Baur in Paris.
Domenico Maria Leone Cirillo has got Linnaeus’s address and has been asked to write.
Alströmer shall now go to Bologna and then Venice.
Lupinus albus is cultivated in Italy. Young boys and common people eat the seeds after they have been cured for 14 days in cold water. The plant is best used as green forage to oxen.