SCANDINAVIANS 



Who Have Contributed to the Knowledge of the Flora of North 



America. '' 



When we this year celebrate the two hundredth anniversary 

 of the birth of Linnteus, the first questions that suggest them- 

 selves to us are: "What did the immortal vSwede achieve for bot- 

 any and zoology, the two sciences he loved so well?", and "Has 

 the work of Linnteus auj direct bearing upon the botany and 

 zoology of America?" 



The first of these questions has been answered so manj' times, 

 and will be answered over and over again this spring at hundreds 

 of places where the anniversary will be celebrated. I say hundreds, 

 for there will scarcely be any college or university of any repute, 

 where natural history is taught, throughout the whole world, 

 which will not have a commemorative celebration of some kind; 

 and what would be more natural for a speaker of the day or an 

 in memoriam writer to dwell upon than the life work of the man 

 in whose memory the celebration is held. To exploit the achieve- 

 ments of Linnteus will tlierefore be left in the hands of many abler 

 men than the present writer is. 



The second question the writer has been asked to answer in a 

 short address at the celebration to be held here in New York on 

 the 23rd of May. Undoubtedly, it will be answered at more than 

 one place in this country this spring. 



When the writer some time ago was asked by Professor J. A. 

 Udden to prepare a "fest-skrift" for the Linue anuiversarj- at 

 Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, he hesitated ver^- much 

 whether to accept this honoring invitation or not. He did not 

 know if it would be possible for him in the short time, and with all 

 the bus3' hours of a curator at an institution such as the New York 

 Botanical Garden, to prepare a memoir creditable to such an oc- 



* Reprinted from the Augustana CoUeL'e Library PublicatiODS Number VI. 



