DILLENIUS. 
mifchievous. _ The errors of Dillenius refpefting the fruai- 
ffes 
e fhall fpeak hereafter, were 
refent day. Flora Lapponica bh 
a efpecially concerning ane ie for information refpeCting 
nonyms, that is erroneous 3 is Ow rks bei 
fubj oined, we are guarded agne any errors that might enfue 
from fach high authorit h tica Bia f Lin- 
nus ie dedicated to the Sherardan Profeflor, as being, 
country, can extended to very f erfons. or 
did he to whom it wes then applied, long continue in the 
fame degree to deferve it. We learn from the corre- 
fpondence of Dillerius wih Haller, that his whole at- 
tention was now abforbed by the family of Moffes, under 
which were included not only the natural ag of plants, 
properly fo called, but the tribes at prefent denomina- 
ted Hepatice, and Lichenes, as = as Buffs Con erve, 
Tremelig, and others. Fuce Fungi w indeed, 
only ee a a families not aisha di reat con 
ief reputation of Dillenius now fecurely 
and appeared in 1741, in one volume 
a arto, under ee title of Hifteria Mufeorum. It confilts 
f 576 pages, with 85 plates, each ae numerous 
f ures, drawn and engraved by t 
coger went to Holland. 
fine Englifh libraries, and we have known 
apers 
fubject mor more : Wedied of late, the price of the Hiforia Mu/- 
corum is now increafed more than ten-fold. ‘The plates, with 
an index or fynopfis only, were reprinted by Millan in 1763 ; 
and even this eae is now advanced in price e plano 
the original one is as complete as oe ble, both with refpect 1 
defcriptions, the fynonyms 
s of ie plants of 
hin L 
(iene than thofe of moft works of that day, and the va- 
rieties under each are rane) inveftigated. ‘I'he plates re- 
prefent every fpecies, often of various ages, and under dif- 
ferent forms and appearances, oneal with feparate leaves, 
or other parts. Nothing can be more expreflive or chara — 
-Eftic — Mew plain except, perhaps, with regard to t 
cru and imbricated Lichens ah are lefs happily 
ne than the t What is chiefly to be regretted, re- 
{pe€ting the moffes, is the want of a higher magnifying power, 
whencethe ftradure of the fringeoft the ap andi innumer- 
ee lee} 
aL fc. ,18.4 
LOW familia 
t, pa aed unnoticed by 
Dillenius. Ce the Stirpes Cryptopamica of Hedwigh 
made botanitts fattidious ; ; and if that work had ok as eeu 
fellow-labourer in this tribe Micheli, who publifhed 13 years 
before him, and had ian dead about ee years when the 
work of Dillenius appear We are difgufted with infin 
ations, that Micheli cee or defcribed more than w 
be feen in nature ; a ele of which that faithful ver 
i i capable, as of the illiberality of gra- 
tuitoufly charging snot with it. pPlys every one of 
is obfervations, ar as we can recolleét, has been verified 
by aa bots Pa hart a feeds of Li 
Thefe n fell into one common error, 
pees the pa i oP frudification of moffes, taking for 
the anther what is now proved to be the capfule, in which 
miftake Dillenius was, as we have already hinted, implicitly 
followed by Linnzus, and, indeed, by ae ler and others, 
till the Hedwigian fchool arofe. 
‘ 
eved to in » from correCting 
this error, as he thought, has sii luppoe the author of 
the above falfe theory. The ar aa is properly 
called a phi but Dillenius mnifapplied that term, as he 
believed it an anther, of which few of his readers are aware. 
Dr. Pulteney has cbferved, that the Hiforia Mufcorum was 
the firft book printed in England in which any of the Lin 
nean {pecific chara@ters were exhibited. The learned Seats 
communicated feveral things to this work, and ftill continued 
to correfpond with its author, whofe laft letter to him is 
and ac- 
he complains of the low and watery fituation of his Oxford 
garden, where the heavy morning dews and fogs, in au- 
tumn, were extremely unfavourable to the ripening of feeds. 
There appear, in his letters, fcarcely any traces of the cool- 
nefs or rifing difpleafure between thefe old friends, which 
the letters of Dillenius to Haller the 
his part at | na letter to Linnzus, fo early as April 
30, 1741, he complains of growing old, and not enjoying 
good health. He is faid to have been of a fhort itature 
tary life. He died of an apoplexy, April 2, 1747, in 
the 6oth year of his age. His place of interment is not 
recorded, nor ha . oe that any monument has 
baie the nna Sims 
d Mr. The countenance is pee of an 
eafy placid dipotio, and fuch is faid to have been the 
charaGer of Dillenius. The imperfe ions of temper, to fome 
indications of which we have alluded above, feem not to have 
been habitual nor permanent. He lived on eafy terms with 
thofe around him, and was refpected a 
BS) 
i=] 
