8(5 ELTAS FRIES. 



The literary activity of Professor Fries has brought forth fruit 

 in almost all the fields of botany. He has published explanations 

 and critical examinations of some of the more difficult genera 

 among the higher plants ; for instance, Hieracium, Salix, L'arex, 

 and several others ; he has written Floras of the whole of Scandi- 

 navia and of separate parts of it ; he has given (in ' Noviti® Florae 

 Suecise,' ' Botaniska Notiser,' &c.) descriptions of a great many new 

 plants discovered by him ; he has written treatises on agricultiu-e 

 and practical botany, on the nomenclature of plants, and on the 

 history of botany. I may also mention the ' Botaniska Utflygter ' 

 (Botanical Excursions, 1852 — 64), in which he has in a very 

 happy manner popularised this science, and which has been read 

 with a lively interest beyond his own country. All these works 

 prove a scientific productiveness and versatility for which it is not 

 easy to find many parallels in botany.* 



Fries was also eminent as a systematic botanist, and the 

 Friesian system is still followed by some Swedish writers.! It 

 is true that other princij)les and different views will probably take 

 its place, but nevertheless it had a great importance and must be 

 counted among the most excellent of natural systems. With 

 regard to the relationship of species, the same point of view has 

 been taken that Linne describes in these words, as being his 

 own : — "A species is each form brought forth by the Creator in 

 the beginning." It is but natural that some of the books of Fries 

 have not now the same authority as when they first appeared, 

 science having since then sped forward with such swiftness that 

 some of them belong now only to the history of botany. But this 

 rapid progress is indeed the highest proof of the value of his 

 works, for it was they which gave the great impulse to the labours 

 that have in our days brought such a change in these separate 

 branches of botany. 



The power that Fries possessed of giving in writing clear and 

 well-defined expressions of his scientific opinions, distinguished 



* The titles and dates of some of his most important contributions to 

 Phanero^'amic Botany are: — ' Novidse Florse Suecicge' (1814 — 23), edition 2 

 (18-28) ; "' Contiuuatio, sistens Mantiss. i., ii., iii. (1832—42) ; ' Flora Hallaudica' 

 (1817—18); ' Corpus Flor. Provinc. Sueciffi,— Flora Scanica' (1835—36) ; ' Summa 

 Vegetabiliura Scandinaviiie ' (1846—49) ; ' Symbolfe ad Hist. Hieraciorum 

 (1847 — 48) ; ' Botaniska Utflygter ' (1852—64) ; ' Observationes criticse plant. 

 Suecicas illust,' (1854); ' Epicrisis gen. Hieraciorum ' (1862). 'I he list of his 

 smaller contributions to Societies and Journals (ebietly Swedish) given in the 

 Pioyal Society's 'Catalogue of Scientific Papers,' extends (to end of 1873) to 

 85 articles. The valuable series of exsiccata of Scandinavian plants, the 

 Herbarium Normale, was issued in 15 fascicles during a period of over twenty 

 years, the last b(dng dated 1857. This collection of critical plants is of the 

 highest value for the study of the plnnts of Northern Europe, and as it is quoted 

 by Fries throughout the first part of his ' Summa,' the specimens show clearly what 

 lie intended by his names. As to their bearing upon British botany as illustrat- 

 ing our Flora, it is shown by the use always made of them by Prof. Babington 

 in his various papers on critical questions. — [Ed. Journ. Bot] 



t Published first in the ' Flora Scanica ' (1835). An outline will be found in 

 Lindley's •Vegetable Kingdom,' p. xliv. Such valuable books as Hnrtman's 

 • Skandinaviens Ilora ' and Nyman's ' Sylloge Flor. Europrese' are arranged on 

 this system. — L-^^^- Journ. Bot.] 



