HIS WORK FOR POSTERITY 231 



satisfied before we had half discharged our duty to our 

 fellow-creatures.' 



The diligence of Linnseus's correspondence is the 

 more marked from its comparative unusualness at that 

 time. Sir W. Scott observes, 1 ' So slight and infrequent 

 was the intercourse betwixt London and Edinburgh, 

 that on one occasion the mail from the former city 

 arrived at the General Post Office in Scotland with only 

 one letter in it.' 



While his life was enriched by his host of friends, 

 correspondents and pupils, Linnaeus, who had an eye 

 for political economy clear almost as Adam Smith's 

 own, wanting to shut the gate by which the silver left 

 the country, wrote through Ellis to Dr. Garden, in 

 1758, to send him the cochineal insect together with 

 the Opuntia that it adheres to. Linnaeus also wrote to 

 Dr. Garden for this purpose, telling him of a great 

 disappointment he had once had when trying to import 

 this valuable dye : ' I received from America some 

 years ago several cochineal insects on the cactus 

 (Indian fig), but the gardener in my absence mistook 

 the young ones for some noxious insects, and cleared 

 all away except two, which died without progeny. . . . 

 Farewell, excellent patron and benefactor; and study 

 that botany may always be turned to some beneficial 

 purpose.' 



Ellis writes to Linnaeus, London, October 24, 1758 : 

 1 1 have lately written to Carolina, to Dr. Garden to send 



1 Heart of Midlothian. 



