PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR, 



xiit 



What Baron Haller's opinion was of Linn^us, after 

 their friendship had been cooled by the assertions made by the 

 latter in his Flora Siiecica, ill appear from the following ex~ 

 tra£l of a letter, never printed before, and written by Halle r 

 iTomGoettingen,to\\\s h'ltndi Nils Rosen de Rosenstein, 

 dean of the college of physicians at Upsal : 



" The inclosed letter I beg you will deliver to Linn.eus. 

 " Should he not return to more friendly sentiments, it may 

 " be the last I shall write to him. He has lately apolo- 



gized to me in a letter, but in such a manner, that I had 

 " rather been without his apology. I have, in many in- 

 " stances, shewn myself his friend, indulged his failings, con- 

 " tributed to his reputation ; but do not find that return for 

 " my kindness which I had a right to expeft. I shall hereafter 

 " publish a Prodromus Florce Germamcce, in which I will treat 

 " LiNN^us in such a manner as he shall then have merited on 

 " my account. The man is aftive I cannot deny, and a zea- 



lous lover of nature, for which I love him ; but his charafter 

 " has for me a something — I know not what to call it, of aspe- 

 " rity, fickleness and unevenness." 



t LiNN^o nuper per litteras se purganti, sed ita, ut mallem, abstineret purga- 

 tione, has litteras trades, forte, nisi ad amiciorem sensum redibit, ultimas. Mul- 

 tum ipsi tribui, peperci erroribus, famam auxi : non invenio eum mese comitatis 

 frudlum, quein sperare poteram. — Edam deinde Germanicse Florae Prodromum, in 

 quo de LiNNiEO ita agetur, ut interim de me merebitur. Laboriosus certe homo est 

 et Naturae cupidus, hinc mihi carus, sedcujus mores mecum nescioquid inasquabile 

 habent et inconstans et asperum. — (Communicated from Stockholm). 



1 The 



