SOME EECENT SCA>'DIXAVIAN N^OTES 357 



SOME RECENT SCANDINAVIAN NOTES. 



Ax interesting little volunae has recently been published in Copen- 

 hagen by Carl Christensen, the well-known pteridologist, entitled 

 Naturforskeren Pehr Forssk&l, etc., giving an account of that 

 naturalist and his journey to Egypt and Arabia in 1761-63, o£ which 

 expedition Christen Niebuhr was the sole survivor. The author 

 narrates the Danish expedition financed by King Fredrik V., often 

 but erroneously referred to as " Niebuhr's Voyage," and the successive 

 fatalities which reduced the numbers from six to one. Linne's pupil 

 was the naturalist, until his decease at Jerim on the 11th July, 17G3. 

 Next follows a sketch of Forskal's life and studies, his stay in Copen- 

 hagen from 1760-61, and a summing-up of his character and work. 

 The second part of the volume contains an account of Forsskal's 

 collections, his manuscripts and their publication, and the present 

 state of his herbarium. An appendix gives the text of forty hitherto 

 unpublished letters and documents, nearly all in German, with four 

 in French. The whole is a veiy welcome addition to our knowledge 

 of the Swedish naturalist, whose name it may be mentioned, occurs in 

 more than twenty varieties of spelling. The author has employed the 

 most usual form, which is not that printed in the posthumous 

 volumes brought out by Niebuhr in 1775-76. 



Prof. H. O. Juel has just reprinted his memoir Hemerhunqen 

 iiber Hasselqiiisfs Herharium from the first volume of the newly 

 established Swedish Linnean Society (Svenska Linne-Sallskapets 

 Aarsskrift). As is well known, Hasselquist died at Smyrna in 1752, 

 and his collections were seized by his creditors for debt. Queen 

 Louise Ulrika was induced to buy them for the amount claimed, and 

 Linne received some duplicates of the plants and a command to 

 publish Hasselquist's journal. This narrative and the plants com- 

 municated formed the basis of the thesis Flora palaestina, in 1756. 

 The main collection remained at Drottingholm till 1803 when King 

 Gustav IV. gave the whole of the biological collections to Up{)sala 

 University. Thunberg was at that time in charge of the botanical 

 garden, and he published a series of names of plants from Hassel- 

 quist's gathering, supplying in many cases names to the unnamed 

 plants, some of them being erroneous. 



The author then cites various species which made their appearance 

 gradually in Linne's publications, and shows that this main collection 

 could hardly have been seen by the great Swedish naturalist. Three 

 species, Leontodon lanalum, Artemisia judaica, and Origanum 

 cegptiaciim, are absent from the Linnean herbarium, but this may be 

 a mistake, arising from the mistaken belief that specific names in tlie 

 Index to the Linnean Ilerhariinn (Proc. Linn. Soc. 1911-12, 

 Suppl.) ])rhited in italic tyjie signify their absence, whereas it simply 

 means that Linne has not written these names on any specimen in 

 that herbarium ; the plants may be there, mmamed or named by 

 some otlier person. Then follow twenty-two pages of comment upon 

 the plants now extant at Upjjsala, and various remarks made by 

 Hasselquist and later authorities. 



