EUROPEAN HERBARIA. 3 
His success, as soon appeared, was entirely owing to his 
promptitude, for other #nd very pressing applications were 
almost immediately made for the collection, but the upright 
Dr. Acrel, having given Mr. Smith the refusal, declined to en- 
tertain any other proposals while this negotiation was pending. 
The purchase was finally made for 900 guineas, excluding the 
separate herbarium of the younger Linnzus, collected before 
his father’s death, and said to contain nothing that did not 
exist in the original herbarium ; this was assigned to Baron 
Alstreemer, in satisfaction of a small debt. The ship which 
conveyed these treasures to London had scarcely sailed, when 
the king of Sweden, who had been absent in France, returned 
home and dispatched, it is said, an armed vessel in pursuit. 
This story, though mentioned in the “Memoir and Corre- 
spondence of Sir J. E. Smith,” and generally received, has, we 
believe, been recently controverted. However, the king and 
the men of science in Sweden were greatly offended, as indeed 
they had reason to be, at the conduct of the executors, in 
allowing these collections to leave the country ; but the dis- 
grace should perhaps fall more justly upon the Swedish gov- 
ernment itself and the University of Upsal, which derived its 
reputation almost entirely from the name of Linneus. It 
was, however, fortunate for science that they were transferred 
from such a remote situation to the commercial metropolis of 
the world, where they are certainly more generally accessible. 
The late Professor Schultes, in a very amusing journal of a 
botanical visit to England in the year 1824, laments indeed 
of Russia is said to have thoughts of it. The manuscripts, letters, etc., 
must be invaluable, and there is, no doubt, a complete collection of all the 
inaugural dissertations which have been published at Upsal, a small part 
of which has been published under the title of “Amenitates Academice,” 
a very celebrated and scarce work. All these dissertations were written 
by Linnzus, and must be of prodigious value. In short, the more I think 
of this affair the more sanguine I am, and earnestly hope for your concur- 
rence. I wish I could have one half hour’s conversation with you ; but 
that is impossible.” (Correspondence of Sir James Edward Smith, edited 
by Lady Smith, vol. i. p. 93.) 
The appeal to his father was not in vain ; and, did our limits allow, we 
should be glad to copy, from the work cited above, the entire correspond- 
ence upon this subject. 
