TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINN^US. 



friend published them * at Copenhagen, and the interesting contents of 

 his last letter were communicated to LiNN^ust, who called a plans 

 after his name — Forskahlea Tenacissima'^. 



Thus three of his young pupils found an early grave in Asia, 

 The ashes of a fourth were destined for another part of the world. 

 However flattering the choice of Forskal to a8; as a naturalist in the 

 Danish voyage to Arabia must have been, yet the sele6lion of another 

 pupil of LiN N>Eus proved equally honourable to our luminary. Appli- 

 cation was made to him from the west of Europe, from Madrid, for an 

 able botanist. He chose for this purpose a young Swede of the 

 name of Peter Loe fling, who went to Spain in 175I5 where he- 



* Flora ^gyptiaco-Arabica, Havn. I'jis, 4to. — PiiTRi Forskal Descriptiones Ani- 

 maliiim, Avium, Aniphibioriim, Piscimn, Inspi^lorum, Vfrminrn, quae in Itinere Orientali 



observavit ; Hanjii. 1776 All published by Counsellor J. A Niebchr — Symbola' Rotanicae, 



seu PlantarLim, tarn earum quas itinere, imprimis Orlentali coUegit Pet. Forskal, quanx 

 al arum recentius deteftarum exaftiores descriptiones, au6tore M, Wahl, profess. &c, 

 Ha'Vtt. 1790, fol. cum 25 tab. sen. pars. I, 



f See Opobalsamum Declaratiim. Upsal, j']64: In the Jlmcen'ttat. Academ. vol. vii. 



X Counsellor Niebuhr sent Linn^.us a copy of Forskal's work as soon as it was 

 printed. Apprehensions had been entertained in Siueden lest his observations, should be lost in 

 Denmark, The royal academy of sciences of Stockholm received M, Niebuhr as one of its 

 members, out of gratitude for the pains he had taken to preserve the name and celebrity of 

 the unfortunate Forskal. Linnjeus himself, who was quite overjoyed at the publication 

 of the observations of his late pupil, sent him a letter of thanks for the copy he had presented 

 him with. M. Niebuhr, in a letter to the author of the present work, expresses himself 

 thus: *' That Forskal was a worthy and excellent pupil of Linn^us, whose name he 

 never mentioned without reverence, is a fa<2: which needs no repetition. It is sufficiently 

 proved by his labours and observations. I doubt not but it will entitle him yet to the praise 

 " of posterity. And this was my wish when I endeavoured to preserve his memory in the 

 •« literary world." — LinnjEus might certainly have chosen a better plant than the Forskalhea 

 lenadssima to perpetuate the memory of his pupil. That it contains an allusion to the cha-. 

 ra^^er of the deceased, the Swedes themselves do not deny. Great men have great whims, 

 and LiNN^us had his, especially in the denomination of plants. 



1 acquired 



