616 LINDSTRÖM, ON THE »CORALLIA BALTICA» OF LINN^US. 



It was during his remarkable tour in Gotland in the year 

 1741 that the chief mäss of materials were collected, subse- 

 quently the foundation for his work on the Corallia baltica. In 

 this excursion LiNN^us was accompanied by six young students 

 of natural history, who seem to have had each his part to which 

 to attend according to a sort of division of labour. Of these 

 companions Fredrik Ziervogel') was the fossil collector proper. 

 The fossils found were no doubt divided between LiNN^us and 

 Ziervogel, who was also the owner of a large collection of natural 

 history objects, which he låter, in 1789, presented to the Society 

 of Sciences of Upsala.-) This collection comprised, besides a 

 large number of other things, »more than 3,000 specimens, 

 foreign as well as indigenous, of petrifications, in good condition». 

 No doubt a great number of Gotland corals, which ZiERVOGEL 

 hiraself had brought home were amongst these. When in låter 

 times the Society of Upsala gave its coUections to the museums 

 of the university, the mineralogical and palseontological specimens 

 were united with the geological cabinet of the University. Now 

 a days it is quite impossible to teil which specimens belonged 

 to ZiERVOGEL, as, through some carelessness, all the old labels 

 have been lost. A similar misfortune has also befallen Linn^eus' 

 own collections of fossils. When in 1784 his museum was sold 

 to Sir James E. Smith it contained of »Corallia Balthica cum 

 varietatibus et iis quse in duplo vel triplo sunt» 726 specimens,. 

 according to the »Catalogus Rerum naturalium Mussei nobilis a 

 Linné», which Professor Acrel, as he stated to Myrin, sent to' 

 Sir James Smith, a copy of which Acrel gave to Myrin who 

 published it. •^) There may be some mistake in regard to the 



') He was then a bov of only fourteen years, but as the King and Queen were 

 his godparents he already at this early age had beeu nominated by letters 

 patent Apothecary to the Royal Court, to inherit låter the large officiue of 

 his father. Sacklkn's Apothekare Historia från Kon. Gustaf I till närva- 

 rande tid p. 44. 



-) See Prosperin Tal om K. Vetenskaps-Societeten i Upsala, 1789, p. 52 — 56. 



') »Om Linnés naturhistoriska .samlingar och deras bortförande till England» 

 in »Skandia» vol. H för 1833 p. 261. 



