144 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



of Wermland in Sweden, where his father was connected with an 

 iron-work. While a student at Upsal he became conspicuous for his 

 love of science, and especially of natural history. His name appears 

 as the Respondent to an Academical Dissertation by Thunberg as 

 early as 1797; but his own Dissertation for the degree of M.D. 

 bears date in 1806, and was followed, in that and the following year, 

 by three others, which were collected together under the common 

 title of ' De Sedibus Materiarum Immediatarum inPlantis Tractatio,' 

 Upsal. 1806 and 1807, 4to. He was already at this early period an 

 Amanuensis in the Museum of Natural History, and attached to 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm in the capacity of 

 " Stipendiarius Regius." Soon afterwards, at the joint expense of 

 the Baron Von Herraelin and of the Societies of Science at Stock- 

 holm and Upsal, he undertook several journeys through the more 

 distant provinces of Scandinavia, visiting Swedish and Norwegian 

 Lapland, and also Gothland, and making extensive researches into 

 their geology and botany. After thus investigating nearly the whole 

 of Scandinavia, he made, at the expense of the University of Upsal, 

 a still more extended journey, in the course of which he travelled 

 through Hungary and Bohemia, visited the Carpathian Mountains 

 and afterwards Switzerland, and returned through Germany to 

 Upsal in the year 1814. His most important botanical works are : — 

 1. ' Flora Lapponica,' Berolini, 1812, 8vo ; 2. ' De Vegetatione et 

 Climate Helvetise Septentrionalis,' Turici, 1813, 8vo ; 3. ' Flora Car- 

 pathorum Principalium,' Gott. 1814, 8vo ; 4. ' Flora Upsaliensis,' 

 Upsalise, 1820, 8vo ; 5. 'Flora Suecica,' Stockholm, 2 vols. 8vo, 

 1824-26, of which a second edition was published in 1831-33; 

 6. the ninth volume of ' Svensk Botanik,' of which he was named 

 editor in 1825, but the continuation of which he afterwards re- 

 signed to Prof. Wahlberg. He contributed also many valuable 

 papers to the ' Magazin der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde,' 

 at Berlin, and to the 'Transactions of the Swedish Academy.' 

 In all these works he proved himself a most careful and original 

 observer, admitting nothing which he had not examined himself, 

 unless it were capable of standing the test of the severe criticism to 

 which he subjected his own observations as well as those of others, 

 and constantly exhibiting an earnest desire to contract rather than 

 to increase the number of species. In a critical knowledge of the 

 plants of Northern and Central Europe he scarcely had a rival ; and 

 the value of his systematic works is greatly enhanced by his profound 

 researches into the climate, the physical geography, and the geolo- 

 gical character of the countries whose flora he has illustrated, which 



