12 



years after Holmskjold had collected the fungi and Neander had 

 painted them was the first volume of Holmskjolds principal work 

 published (1790); the second volume was not pubhshed until after 

 the death of Holmskjold (1799); the king defrayed the expenses of 

 the publication. It was a splendid edition in folio, the figures were 

 reproduced as engravings and the most favoured persons even recei* 

 ved handpainted copies. Only one species of fungi is reproduced on 

 each plate, while the text is printed in Latin and in Danish. "Beata 

 RURis" as it is generally called, deserved the sensation its appearance 

 made both on account of its elaborate make^^up and of its valuable 

 observations; Retzius calls it "the most brilliant work which had 

 appeared up to that time", and Persoon writes: "Praecipue hoc quoque 

 valet de iconibus, quae ratione artis, nee non pulchritudinis omnibus 

 mihi notis vegetabilium deliniationibus palmam facile praeripiunt." 

 The Latin text of the first part was printed in "Usteri's Annaler" 1795, 

 and Persoon published it under the name of "Coryphaei Clavarias 

 Ramariasque complectentes cum brevi structurae interioris expositione", 

 to which he added his: "Commentatio de fungis clavaeformibus, 

 sistens specierum hucusque notarum descriptiones cum differentiis 

 specificis". Leipzig 1797. Persoon's "Commentatio" was, however, also 

 published separately. El. Durand wrote about Holmskjold's publica* 

 tions in The Journal of Mycology, July 1907. As a curiosity it may 

 be mentioned that "Beata ruris" is not yet out of print, a few plates 

 are missing, but otherwise the material of the whole work still rests 

 with the publisher. Most of Holmskjold's figures are easily recogni* 

 zable; Severin Petersen has quoted all Agaricaceae (1907), and I 

 have in the present work classified all the other species. Holmskjold 

 is the author of Clavaria fistulosa, contorta and cristata, Cordyceps 

 capitata, Helvella pulla and Cyphella capula. He was the first to ob? 

 serve that Cordyceps militaris was a fungus growing on dead insects 

 in the earth, for then it was generally believed that it was the dead 

 insect itself that was transformed into a fungus (see R 93 b). 



Holmskjold died in 1793; a splendid painting of himself his wife 

 and his daughter done by the famous Danish painter Jens Juel is in 

 the possession of Mr. I. Vleugel customhouse officer at Lulea; I have 

 caused a reproduction of the same to be published in the series of 

 portraits of Danish botanists which is being published by the Danish 

 Gardener's Association. (A portrait of Rostrup is also found in the 

 same series). 



Georg Christian Edler von Oeder was born at Anspach 1728; he 

 was a disciple of Haller. In 1752 he was called to Denmark by Bern* 

 storff, the statesman. Two years later he was appointed professor of 

 botany at the University of Copenhagen, an office he held until 1770, 



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