BIHANG TILL K. SV. VET.-AKAB. HANDL. BAND 13. AFD. IT. N:0 5. 41 



been lying by me in a dark box»*). Under such circumstances, 

 and while conscientiouslv reo-ardinw himself in dutv bound 

 to keep their essential part, tlie elaborate descriptions, strictly 

 to himself in triist for the intended Royal publications, LiN- 

 N^us introduced all the species of the M. h. U. into the Sy- 

 stema Natiirae, under final binary denominations, with their 

 »differenti3e>- only, but amplified and revised, and with the re- 

 ferences to preceding aiithors. 



»I never can believe», he writes in 1759, ; that the second 

 part of the King's jSInseiim will come out.» He is no longer 

 so anxious to see the Testacea of the Qneen's Cabinet pu- 

 blished, since Kbatzenstein's great work had now appeared, 

 but is highly pleased with the news that, on his solicitation 

 »when the Queen was at Upsala», Clerck is to begin figuring 

 the Butterflies-). It seems, however, that even this partial 

 progrcss was soon cut short, and that Clerck was permitted 

 to make use of the figurcs for his own private worki*). At 

 last, earlv in 1763, perhaps somehow in consequeuce of this 

 deviation from the original plan, IjINN^eus, being out of pa- 

 tience, asked and obtaincd the Queen's permission to have 

 published privately the Museum without the plates, in octavo, 

 as a prodrome. »The new edition of the Species Plantarum 

 is now completed, then come the Genera, and after them the 

 Museum Reginae that 1 may get rid of the descriptions in the 

 new edition of the Systema Animalium)*). »If I could have 

 been permitted to have the Insects in my owu Museo, it 

 would have been much better; now I o-ive whatever I was 

 able to bring together; if I do not, the world will have nothing 

 of it»^). >In six wceks I hope to have the Genera ready 

 from the printer, and then I shall immediately begin with 

 Her Mäjesty's Cabinet, as I was lately promised when You 

 were present. If it is not done in my life-time, it will never 

 be done, and it is in vain to wait for the plates, as their 

 Majesties are daily more and more beset with sorrows and 

 anxieties. It would be a loss to scieuce if it were not pu- 



') The original, dated '' , 6-i, written from dictatiou but sijj-ned in 

 LiNN^US' own hand, is in the library of the Caroline Institute. The »ten 

 years» are counted from his last scientific visit to the Queen"s Museum 

 ia September 1754. 



2) L. to BÄCK, 'V;, "/T. f'^; "'2 60. L. to Clerck 'Vj, ^/g 59. 



') Icones Insectorum Kariorum, T. Holmise, 1759, II. 176'1. 



*) L, to BÄCK, ^7, G^^. 



») L. to BÄCK, "a 63. 



