EUROPEAN HERBARIA. 5 
him. Under the patronage of the Swedish government, this 
enterprising pupil of Linnzus remained three years in this 
country, traveling throughout New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, and Lower Canada; hence his plants are almost 
exclusively those of the northern States. 
Governor Colden, to whom Kalm brought letters of intro- 
duction from Linnezus, was then well known as a botanist by 
his correspondence with Peter Collinson and Gronovius, and 
also by his account of the plants growing around Coldenham, 
New York, which was sent to the latter, who transmitted it to 
Linneus for publication in the “ Acta Upsalensia.” At an 
early period he attempted a direct correspondence with Lin- 
nus, but the ship by which his specimens and notes were 
sent was plundered by pirates;? and in a letter sent by 
Kalm, on the return of the latter to Sweden, he informs Lin- 
neus that this traveler had been such an industrious collector 
as to leave him little hopes of being himself farther useful. 
It is not probable therefore that Linnzus received any plants 
from Colden, nor does his herbarium afford any such indi- 
cation.® 
1 « Ex his Kalmium, nature eximium scrutatorem, itinere suo per Penn- 
sylvaniam, Novum Eboracum, et Canadam, regiones Americe ad septen- 
trionem vergentes, trium annorum decursu dextre confecto, in patriam 
inde nuper reducem leti recipimus: ingentem enim ab istis terras reporta- 
vit thesaurum non conchyliorum solum, insectorum, et amphibiorum sed 
herbarum etiam diversi generis ac usus, quas, tam siccas quam vivas, alla- 
tis etiam seminibus eorum recentibus et incorruptis, adduxit.” (Linn. 
Amen. Acad., vol. iii. p. 4.) 
2 See Letter of Linnzus to Haller, September 24, 1746. 
8 The Holosteum succulentum of Linneus (Alsine foliis ellipticis carnosis 
of Colden) is, however, marked in Linnzus’s own copy of the “Species 
Plantarum” with the sign employed to designate the species he at that 
time possessed ; but no corresponding specimen is to be found in his her- 
barium. This plant has long been a puzzle to American botanists ; but it 
is clear from Colden’s description that Dr. Torrey has correctly referred 
it, in his “ Flora of the Northern and Middle States ’’ (1824), to Stellaria 
media, the common Chickweed. Governor Colden’s daughter seems fully 
to have deserved the praise which Collinson, Ellis, and others have be- 
stowed upon her. The latter, in a letter to Linneus (April, 1758), says : 
“ Mr. Colden of New York has sent Dr. Fothergill a new plant, described 
by his daughter. It is called Fibraurea, gold-thread. It is a small creep- 
