42 SVEN LOVEN, ON THE ECHINOIDEA DESCRIBED BY LINN^US. 



blislied. I am going to have it printed in oetavo; if on 

 some future day the prospects should have beconie more favour- 

 able, it may then be px;blished splendidly, in folio, and Avith 

 plates. The mauuscript is neatly copied and quite ready. 

 But, ålas! how difficnlt it is to publish anything when absent. 

 1 made the descriptions as accurate as possible at the time, 

 and now so many books have appeared and I cannot compare 

 the specimens. It is also one thing to write in one's own 

 study, and quite another to write at court. (^ould I have the 

 insect-cabinets sent here while the work is printing, all would 

 be better, much better, but 1 cannot make up my mind to 

 ask for them, although I will pledge my soul and honour 

 that not a feather should suffer damage. I fear, moreover, 

 that no small part of their contents is spoilt already, for who 

 is there now to look after them and take care of such a the- 

 saurus, and see that it does not fall into decay through moth 

 and rust»^). 



LiNNvEUS now löst no time to have the neatly penned 

 copies of his schedules ready for printing, and to add some 

 references not introduced when the primitive MS. was closed 

 in 1752. But only a few found place: Kleins Tentamen Me- 

 thodi ostracologicte of 1753; Brown's Jamaica of 1756; Gi- 

 NANNi's Opere postume of 1755; Adanson, Senegal, 1757; Seba, 

 Thesaurus, III, 1758; Basteb, Opuscula, 1761, — but, as one 

 cannot fail to have remarked, generally the references given 

 in the M. L. U. of 1764 are much fewer than those given 

 in the S. X. ed. 10, of 1758. 



The printing was commenced early in 1764-). The first 

 sheet A, is that beginning with the page having only the 

 words: Pars I, Insecta exotica, and after the last species of the 

 genus Julus p. 462, there follows a second title-page: Pars II, 

 Testacea. It seems that the printing had advanced up to that 

 point and perhaps beyond it, when it became a matter af con- 

 sideration wliat title should be given to the work. Among 

 the schedules preservcd there is one, a copyist's transcriptiou 

 cancelled by LixNN.eus, on the back of which is seen, in his 

 hand, the title as then intended: »Museum Reginai S:fe Ludo- 

 vicae Ulricae etc , sistens Insecta exotica et Conchilia pulchriora 

 in Arce Drottningholmensi asservata, descripta a Carolo a 



') L. to B.lCK. '^ in 63. 

 2) L. to B.\CK ':\ 04. 



