*LACIIESIS LAPPONICA* 183 



his eyes from the magic of the mountains Linnaeus was 

 equally enchanted with the new world of arctic nature 

 at his feet. 



' When I cast my eyes over the grass and herbage 

 there were few objects I had seen before, so that all 

 nature was alike strange to me. I walked in snow as 

 if it had been the severest winter. All the rare plants 

 that I had previously met with, and which had from 

 time to time afforded me so much pleasure, were here 

 as in miniature, and now also in such profusion that I 

 was overcome with astonishment, thinking I had 

 now found more than I should know what to do with. 

 I sat down to collect and describe these vegetable 

 rarities.' 



He gives a list of thirty, all described and named 

 extemporaneously. 1 Not one of these names has subse- 

 quently been set aside by any of his severest critics. He 

 noted the silken-leaved alpine lady's mantle, the deep 

 green sibbaldia, the little purple-flowered azalea, the suc- 

 culent rose-root, the red lychnis, and several ranunculi, the 

 beautiful saxifraga stellaris, rivularis, and oppositifolia, of 

 which last Du Chaillu says, c Many times have I remained 

 standing in admiration before this exquisite flower, which 

 looks like a velvety carpet of purple moss, and grows in 

 patches on the dark rocks, often surrounded by snow.' 

 And the Primula farinosa of which Linnaeus speaks, 

 ' This primula, the splendid crimson of whose flowers 

 attracts the eyes of all who traverse the fields of Sk&ne 

 1 One plant was dedicated subsequently to Jussieu. 



