»IHANG TILL K. sv. VET.-AKAI>. HANUL. BAND 13. AFD. IV. N:o5. 55 



rcmarked, dictated the diagnoses partly in Swedish and the 

 »character essentialis» alone in Latin, but as soon as he touched 

 on tlie Ecliini and Asterioe, which were not then destined for 

 the Royal publicatiou, he no longer felt himself in diity bound 

 to auv reservation, and freely made use of his late studies in 

 tlie <,)ueen's cabiuet. The notes, taken down by at least two 

 dirterent persons amoug his hearers from his dictation, give 

 the »nomina specilica>' as they stood in the schednles, and 

 conform in giving his very words, thus clearly pointing out 

 the corrections to be made and affording the chie to morc 

 tliau one serious deviation. It was in being transferrred, as 

 diaonoses, in 1758 to the S. N. ed. 10 and in 17G4 to the M. 

 L. U., that part of these dictations of Linn^^us bceame in- 

 eorreet. Tradition says that he made ample use of his di- 

 sciples in copying his maniiscripts and seeing them through 

 the press. His rather illegible handwriting and impatieut ardour, 

 and the liasty printing of the last sheets added at the very 

 close of the M. L. U., seem to go far to acconnt for the de- 

 ticienses of the published diagnoses. 



As for the descriptions, which have coine to us only 

 throuoli the M. L. U., we have uo test of their correctness. 

 Tliey have not wholly escapcd the dangers of the Imrried 

 publication, hut it will be seen, however, that generally they 

 tive verv characteristic, often strikinglv so, though assuredly 

 they might have gained in some points, had LiNNJäU^i been 

 able in after years to revise them with the original specimens 

 before him, and to give them the benefit of second thoughts. 



At the time of the Lectures Linn^eus had not yet begun 

 to apply the binary method of denomination '), and in the 

 notes the genus-name Echinus is directlv followed bv the 

 »nomen speciflcum», the future diagnosis. But, as already in 

 tlie first edition of the Fauna Suecica, the current »nomen 

 triviale» is also given, below, preceded by a -vulgo?/ or »is 

 called , as: esculentus, saxatilis, Diadema, Cidaris, Spatagus, 

 rosaecus, laeunosus, operculum, names, partly from KuMrHius, 

 under which perhaps the specimens had come from Holland. 

 They were nearly all adopted in the S. N. ed. 10, 1758, where 

 tilso new names make their tirst appearence: sphsproidcs, ma- 

 millatus, atratus, reticiUatus, with others supplied by thp 



') See above p. ;50. 



