EUROPEAN HERBARIA. 5 



him. Under the patronage of the Swedish government, this 

 enterprising pupil of Linnaeus remained three years in this 

 country, traveling throughout New York, New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Lower Canada ; hence his plants are almost 

 exclusively those of the northern States. 1 



Governor Golden, to whom Kalm brought letters of intro- 

 duction from Linnaeus, was then well known as a botanist by 

 his correspondence with Peter Collinson and Gronovius, and 

 also by his account of the plants growing around Coldenham, 

 New York, which was sent to the latter, who transmitted it to 

 Linnaeus for publication in the "Acta Upsalensia." At an 

 early period he attempted a direct correspondence with Lin- 

 naeus, but the ship by which his specimens and notes were 

 sent was plundered by pirates ; 2 and in a letter sent by 

 Kalm, on the return of the latter to Sweden, he informs Lin- 

 naeus that this traveler had been such an industrious collector 

 as to leave him little hopes of being himself farther useful. 

 It is not probable therefore that Linnaeus received any plants 

 from Colden, nor does his herbarium afford any such indi- 

 cation. 8 



1 " Ex his Kalmium, naturae eximium scrutatorem, itinere suo per Penn- 

 sylvaniam, Novum Eboracum, et Canadum, regiones America? ad septen- 

 trionem vergentes, trium annorum decursu dextre confeeto, in patriam 

 inde nuper reducem lseti reeipimus: ingentem enim ab istis terras reporta- 

 vit thesaurum non conehyliorum solum, inseetorum, et amphibiorum sed 

 herbarum etiam diversi generis ac usus, quas, tam siccas quam vivas, alla- 

 tis etiam seminibus eorum recentibus et incorruptis, adduxit." (Linn. 

 Amaen. Acad., vol. iii. p. 4.) 



2 See Letter of Linnaeus to Haller, September 24, 1746. 



3 The Holosteum succulentum of Linnams (Alsine foliis ellipticis carnosis 

 of Colden) is, however, marked in Linnaeus's own copy of the " Species 

 riantarum " with the sign employed to designate the species he at that 

 time possessed ; but no corresponding specimen is to be found in his her- 

 barium. This plant has long been a puzzle to American botanists ; but it 

 is clear from Colden's description that Dr. Torrey has correctly referred 

 it, in his " Flora of the Northern and Middle States " (1824), to Stellaria 

 media, the common Chickweed. Governor Colden's daughter seems fully 

 to have deserved the praise which Collinson, Ellis, and others have be- 

 stowed upon her. The latter, in a letter to Linnaeus (April, 1758), says : 

 " Mr. Colden of New York has sent Dr. Fothergill a new plant, described 

 by his daughter. It is called Fibraurea, gold-thread. It is a small creep- 



