CARL VON LINNE AS A GEOLOGIST NATHORST. 729 



honeycomb. Each star or tube was in the shape of a hollow cylinder with 

 19 to 20 hollow squares forming the periphery. These tubes when sawed off 

 crossways had all their cavities filled with lime and were polished, showing an 

 exact likeness to the reverse side of a card. But if these stones were broken 

 lengthwise they looked like a folded net with its huneUis pcrpendicularibus 

 and transvcrmlibus dccui^sfintibufi. Also other MaclrriJorw siiiiplices were seen 

 here that resembled calf's horns, of about the length of a finger and having at 

 their thickest end only one star. Others resembled small cups or goblets; 

 others again were many times proUfcrce a ccntro, like Polytrichum or golden 

 maiden hair, where one cup was inserted in the other. All these coral stones 

 are, according to the discovery of the learned botanist, M. Bernhard Jussieu, 

 nothing else than shells elaborated by small worms that make these stars and 

 stone crusts, there being worms or Medusa', Hydrce, and Polypi of as many 

 different kinds as there are species of Madreporis. The animals which build 

 our corals are yet undescribed, but I must leave them to be examined by others 

 who have more time, and who can select both suitable time and weather to 

 fish for them in the bay at Kapellshamn. * * * 



******* 



From " Stora Karlson " Linne writes as follows : 



Madreporfe, or star corals, were plentiful on all the beaches. * * * i omit 

 enumerating the corals, especially as all Gotland corals which I found during 

 this trip are at present the subject of a disputation, under my Prtesidio, recently 

 published in Upsala, by the auscultator auxiliary, Henr. Fougt. * * * 



* * * -^Yg j-jQ-^ know that this treatise was written b}'' Linne, 

 but foreign scientists who had no knowledge of the custom prevailing 

 with us at Linne's time — that is, that a university professor caused 

 his disquisitions to be published by a pupil and argued through the 

 latter at a formal act of disputation where he himself presided — have 

 quoted Fought as the author of a paper. G. Lindstrom, in an essay 

 entitled "' On the Cora Ilia Baltica of Linnaeus," " has explained the 

 truth of the matter, and even quoted the proofs of the fact that Linne 

 was the real author of the paper, as is incontestably shown by a letter 

 from the latter to one A. Back. In the same work Lindstrom ac- 

 counts for the species described in Linne's article, and from this ac- 

 count it is clear that the described and reproduced corals belonged 

 to no less than 23 species, of which 18 have been identified without a 

 doubt and -i only tentatively, because one of the figures is of an in- 

 definable nature. 



In the collection there are, further, four bryozoans, of which one, 

 however, is not fossil, but recent. It was thus a paleontological work 

 of some magnitude for its time that Linne here achieved. * * * 



As we have seen, Linne at first believed that the corals were still 

 to be found living in the Baltic, but in the Museum Tessinianum, 



" " In Ofwersikt af Kungl. Yetenskapsakademiens Forhandlingar, 1S95." An 

 account is also given here of the fate of the collection of fossils after it had 

 come into the hands of Sir James E. Smith and subsequently into the possession 

 of the Linnean Society. 



