38 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



names. Asclepias syriaca and Rumex Brittanica are American plants, and 

 Rubus deliciosus is one of the least delicious of the raspberry tribe. This 

 invention and strict application of binomial names could not but cause 

 a revolution in botany. Since the appearance of "Species Plantarum" in 

 1753, it has been possible to pigeon-hole not only genera, but also species, of 

 plants. 



Before this useful book was printed, Linnaeus had become better ac- 

 quainted with North American plants, and in another way. Baron Bjelke, 

 the vice-president of the Court of Appeals of Finland, had proposed to the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm to send an able man to Iceland 

 and Siberia, countries partly in the same latitude as Sweden, "to make 

 observations, and such collections of seeds and plants as would improve the 

 Swedish husbandry, gardening, manufactures, arts and sciences." Dr. 

 Linnaeus suggested .North America instead, and recommended one of his 

 pupils. Professor Pehr Kalm of Abo, for the proposed expedition. Kalm 

 spent two years in North America, traveling through Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, New York and Canada, and making large collections of seeds and 

 plants, which were preserved as living or dried specimens, or as alcoholic 

 material. During his stay at Raccoon, N.J., he discovered our mountain- 

 laurel. The Swedes of Raccoon called it spoon-tree, because the Indians 

 made spoons from its hard wood. Kalm adds in his journal, about this 

 tree, "The English call this tree a laurel, because its leaves resemble 

 those of the Laurocerasus. Linnaeus, conformably to the peculiar friend- 

 ship and goodness which he has honored me with, has pleased to call this 

 tree Kalmia joliis ovalis, corymbis terminalibus, or Kalviia latifolia." Here 

 Linnaeus himself gave an illustration of both the pre-Linnaean and the post- 

 Linnaean nomenclature. Kalm became acquainted with several of the 

 naturalists of this country, C. Colden and his daughter Jane, Bartram and 

 Clayton, and through Kalm a correspondence was established between 

 them and Linnaeus. Linnaeus also corresponded with John Ellis, who 

 resided in the West Indies, and Dr. Gardiner, who botanized in Carolina 

 and Florida. Later he bought a set of plants collected by Patrick Browne 

 in Jamaica, and received a part of the collections made by Jacquin in the 

 West Indies. 



When the second edition of the "Species Plantarum" appeared, in 1762, 

 Linnaeus knew and had described nearly 1000 plants indigenous to the 

 Unite'd States and Canada. Besides these, he described about 1000 more, 

 natives of the West Indies, Mexico and Central America, and 400 or 500 

 South American plants. His knowledge of American plants was small 

 compared with what he knew of plants of the Old World. "Codex Lin- 

 nseanus," which enumerates all plants named by Linnaeus, contains not 

 fewer than 8551 species. 



