210 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



I had recently heard one of our most eminent 

 botanists speak enthusiastically of this collection, in 

 some remarks on a lecture on the Flora of Ceylon, 

 saying the plants are as fresh-looking now as if gathered 

 last year. Knowing what Linnaeus had said, and al- 

 lowing for a certain natural warmth of assertion in im- 

 promptu statement, I was somewhat startled on seeing 

 the crumbling state of the specimens on turning over the 

 first few pages. They are in good condition certainly, 

 considering ; but Linnseus's statement is nearest the 

 mark. It was interesting to turn over the very volumes 

 Linnaeus's hands had worked upon. 1 



What labour is here shown in the arrangement ! 

 The second page represents a whole long day's work. 

 The specimens are carefully glued and papered out, and 

 Linnaeus's neatly written names, collated with Burmann's 

 in his ' Flora Zeylanica,' are abundantly annotated and 

 altered by succeeding botanists. It was a work for a 

 long Swedish winter ; herculean he calls it I should say 

 a trial of patience to Job himself. With this addition to 

 his knowledge of Ceylon plants as he was already con- 

 versant with the collections of Burmann of Amsterdam 

 and Hartog of Leyden, whose voyage to Ceylon was 

 made at the expense of Dr. Sherard, besides the studies 

 of Voss of Leyden, and a list of eighteen botanists who 



1 Giinther either gave or sold Hermann's collection to Count 

 Adam Gottlob Moltke, after whose death his library, including the 

 herbarium, was bought by Professor Treschow of Copenhagen, who 

 sold the latter to Sir Joseph Banks for 751. 



