M. Fee's Life of' Lihnaus. 89 



The second part of M, Fee's work contains extracts from the 

 correspondence of Linnaeus with the naturalists of his own time. 

 It was unusually voluminous ; and Linnaeus himself told the 

 Abbe Duvernoy, that ten persons could not have answered all 

 the letters which were addressed to him. More than a thou- 

 sand of his letters, to one hundred and sixty correspondents, are 

 preserved, almost entirely written in Latin ; the oldest in date is 

 addressed to Rudbeck, his benefactor, 29th July 1731, and the 

 last is to Masson, an English collector of plants, in 1776. They, 

 of course, comprehend a period of forty-five years. It should 

 be observed, that, notwithstanding the intellectual decay of his 

 latter years, the literary life of Linnaeus was longer than that of 

 any other individual. His first work, Hortus Uplandicus,* bears 

 date 1731, and the last, Planta Aphyteia^ 1776, embraces a pe- 

 riod of forty-five years, during which the publications of this 

 indefatigable author rapidly succeeded each other. Of these 

 M. Fee has given a very accurate chronological list. Shortly 

 after the same epoch, Mr Wickstrom, a learned Swedish bota- 

 nist, published in his Conspectus Litteraturce BotaniccB in Sue- 

 cia (one volume 8vo, Holunae 1831), a list and review of the 

 botanical manuscripts of Linnaeus. 



The portion of M. Fee's work relating to the correspondence 

 of Linnaeus being only of itself an extract, it is unnecessary to 

 notice it; but we must pay more attention to the third part, 

 which contains some curious anecdotes of this eminent person. 



His connexion with Artedi exhibits him in the most amiable 

 point of view. On arriving at Upsal in 1728, Linnasus made 

 inquiries respecting the student who exhibited the greatest ta- 

 lents, — Artedi was his name ; with whom he soon contracted a 

 very intimate friendship : they laboured together in the differ- 

 ent branches of natural history, and, after a trial of some months, 

 each yielded to the other the departments in which he was supe- 

 rior; Linnaeus to Artedi in Chemistry and Ichthyology, and Ar- 

 tedi to Linnaeus in plants, birds, and insects ; both the friends 

 continued to study together on mineralogy and quadrupeds, in 

 which departments their talents seemed to be equally powerful. 



• This work is very rare, and is not mentioned either in the Ccdaiogxte of 

 Holier^ nor in the later, and very accurate, Tableau of Wikstrtfm. It is men- 

 tioned here on the authority of M. Fee. 



