246 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



It is the world's nature to overload the willing 

 horse. f Work rose open-mouthed ' upon him on every 

 side. It needed all his systematic disposition to reduce 

 the multitudinous confusion to order. Besides his cor- 

 respondence, his lectures, and his daily work as head- 

 gardener to Europe, the name of Linnaeus' s published 

 books is legion. 1 The ' Amcenitates Academicse ' were 

 being continued all this time. This work was begun in 

 1749, 2 and continued to 1769, making seven volumes, 

 containing one hundred and fifty dissertations on the 

 history and economy of nature; each paper being, at 

 that dark time, a new window. 



His books (in sheets) were purchased by L. Salvius 

 of Stockholm, who for many years made large exporta- 

 tions of books to the Dutch fairs. 



1748. 'The Kongl-Cancellerie Collegium issued 

 an edict prohibiting every Swede from printing or 

 publishing anything abroad under a penalty of one 

 thousand silver dollars ' [more than 80?.] ; ' which was 

 aimed entirely at Linnaeus, as no one else had published 

 anything abroad. This tied up the hands and faculties 

 of Linnaeus so much, that he was on the point of vowing 

 never more to publish any work, except some disserta- 

 tions ' 3 by which he probably meant the Amcenitates.' 

 How could Linnaeus reconcile this with his aim to keep 

 silver and all other good things in his own country ? 



1 The Linnaean literature, chiefly comprising his works in their 

 different editions and commentaries upon them, fills 120 pages, or 

 nearly half a volume of the British Museum catalogue. 



2 Or, more probably, 1739. 3 Diary. 



