4 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



press, performing the whole (a task of years) within 

 nine months.' ! This time cannot include the production 

 of the plates, drawn and engraved by J. Wandelaaer, 

 which are splendid. ' Pictures,' says Haller. concern- 

 ing this work, { please amateurs, and prevent a book from 

 seeming dry and tedious.' 



The 'Hortus Cliifortianus ' was brought out in a 

 style much superior in every respect to the productions 

 of that period. 2 The illustrations are some of the most 

 exquisite plates ever seen in any book. The Dutch 

 poem, in praise of Clifford and Linnaeus, on the title 

 page, is also by Wandelaaer. The engraver has taken 

 immense pains with the texture of the 'Ethiopian' 3 

 plant 4 with a curious dry-looking bunch of flowers, that 

 Linnaeus names Cliffortia, of which two varieties are en- 

 graved. The plate of the feathery Collinsonia canadensis 

 is a beautiful picture. Collinson received this compli- 

 ment in a different spirit from Dillenius. ' Something, 

 I think,' the Quaker writes, < was due to me from the 

 commonwealth of botany for the great number of plants 

 and seeds I have annually procured from abroad, and 

 you have been so good as to pay it, by giving me a 

 species of eternity, botanically speaking that is, a 

 name as long as men and books endure.' 



Linnaeus threw himself into this work ' with all the 

 fervour of gratitude, and that enthusiasm for glory, 

 fame, and triumph which belongs especially to the 



1 Diary. 2 Sir W. Jardine. 



8 I.e. African- Cape of Good Hope. * Thirty-first plate. 



