54 PENHALLOW ON 



Ou October 16th, 1*74*7, Prof. Peter Kalm, of Abo, Sweden, and a former pupil of 

 Linnaeus, accompanied by one of his gardeners as assistant, set sail for North America. 

 This event occurred ten years after Linnœus announced his system of classificatiou ; and 

 we may, therefore, consider the period in which Kalm undertook his journey, as one of 

 great activity and interest in botanical research. The proposition of Kalm to undertake 

 the task, was not based u^ion purely scientific grounds, however, for, as Linnœus himself 

 said, in justification of the undertaking, "A journey through North America would be yet 

 of a more extensive utility than that through the northern parts of Siberia and Iceland, 

 for the plants of America were then but little known and scientifically described, and by 

 several trials it seemed probable that the greatest part of the North American plants 

 would bear well the Swedish winters; and, what was more important, a great many 

 American plants promised to be useful in husbandry and physic." Indeed, Kalm himself 

 felt indifferent to the adverse public criticisms freely bestowed upon him, in view of the 

 great public utility likely to result, and this he regarded as " the true reward of his pains 

 and expenses." He was aided very materially by Dr. Linnœus, to whose efforts in his* 

 behalf, he probably owed the final success of his mission, at least, in a very large degree. 



Kalm reached Philadelphia on September 26th, 1*748, and after spending sometime in 

 the States — during which he discovered the laurel which Litinœus dedicated to him 

 irnder the generic name of Kalmia ' — he proceeded by way of Albany and Lake Champlain 

 to Canada, making a somewhat prolonged stay at Quebec, where he met Dr. Graultier,^ 

 with whom he formed an intimate friendship. It was at this time that he dedicated the 

 genvrs Gaidlheria to his friend, who discovered our pretty little winter-green. 



After an absence of three years and eight months, Kalm returned to his old position 

 at Abo, and there, in a small garden of his own, he cultivated hundreds of American 

 plants, since he wished " to see what plants would bear the climate and bear good and 

 ripe seeds so far north." As yet, the university had no botanic garden, and in all proba- 

 bility Kalm's efforts were the means of establishing the earliest institution of the kind 

 in northern Europe. 



Kalm's observations were embodied in a number of communications transmitted to 

 the Swedish Academy. In the journal of his travels, only general observations of scien- 



registers of Notre Dame de Quebec (Register, Aug. 26tb, 1751). It would, besides, be undesirable to change a name 

 consecrated like this by long use." (Can. Nat. N. Ser., i. 332). These variations, however, as well as Kalm's original 

 mistake, are not strange, in view of the fact which Tanguay (Diet. Gen., i. 257) points out, that the name is vari- 

 ously spelled, Gauthier, Gautier and Gauîthier. A fourth form of the name is Gaullier, as already pointed out, and 

 as also occurs in Kalm's Travels, p. 60-1-5. 



Mr. St. Cyr of Quebec confirms the Abbé Brunei's determination of the correct form of the name as Gaultier; 

 therefore the Gauthier as it appears in the Canadian Naturalist, would appear to be an error introduced in making 

 the translation. The same gentleman has also kindly supplied the following notes of interest: — "'M.Gauthier, 

 médecin du Roi, et Academician qui tit en Canada des observations botaniques, météorologiques et médicales de 

 1742 à 1743.' (Ceci est une erreur, car M. Gauthier était à Quebec dans l'automme 1749). ' Il découvrit le thé du 

 Canada et démonstra à l'Académie des Sciences, la supériorité de notre capillaire sur le capillaire français, etc. 

 Il parla en même temps de notre thé qu'il, désigna comme un breuvage excellent, etc., etc. L'Académie fut si 

 satisfaite du Mémoire, qu'elle voulut, que cette plante portât le nom de M. Gauthier, et qu'elle fût appellee 

 Gavltlwria.' Bibaud, Dictionnaire Historique, 129. 



" Dans un rapport de l'intendent Bigot, au ministre français (dated Quebec, Oct. 15th, 1749), il est dit que ' le 

 Sr. Kalm, ne s'est occupé, suivant le compte qui nous en a été rendu par le Sieur Gautier, médecin, qu'il a toujours 

 accompagné, etc., etc.' Documents relatifs à la Nouvelle France, iii. 462." 



' Travels in North America, i. 336. ' Ibid., iii. 130. 



