TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINN^US. 



Besides Loe fling, two other pupilsof Linn/Eus made a voyage to 

 America. The principal among these was Peter Kalm. A patriotic 

 thought of LinNjEus occasioned his voyage*. He well knew that 

 a species of mulberry tree (moms rubra) grew wild in North America, 

 and rose to a fine height in the open distrifts of Canada. The situation 

 and climate of that country are much analagous to that of Sweden. 

 The importation of raw silk in this latter kingdom was reckoned at 

 twenty thousand Swedish pounds, which consequently drew out of 

 the national coffer the sum 250.000 dollars per annum t. Lin- 

 MjEUS proposed to the royal academy of Stockholm a voyage to 

 Canada, to learn, among other things, whether or not the American 

 mulberry trees and the silk-worms which feed on them could be trans- 

 planted in Sweden with advantage. Patriotism soon executed this pro- 

 posal. The royal academy of sciences, the universities of Upsal and 

 Aho, the magistrates of Stockholm^ and the commercial college of the 

 states contributed liberally to defray the expences. Linn^us chose 

 Kalm, who was then a student, and had already made himself known 

 by his observations on domestic natural history, to undertake this 

 voyage. He set out in 06tober 1747, and passed {xoxn England io 

 North America, where he remained three years. In 1751 he returned 

 in good health to his country, where he published an account of his 

 voyage +, and took upon him the funftions of professor of natural 



* See the Introdu6lion to the Treatise upon the Phalcena Bombyx, in the Amcenitat. Acad. 



•}• From an account of the Economical Journal publislied at Stockholm in the year 1790, it 

 appears that the importation of foreign silk amounts at yiresent to thirty-two thousand pounds 

 per annum, of course to the annual sum of 350,000 dollars, Swedish currency. However ia 

 consequence of the late severe edi6t issued by the Regent this trade is now quite at a stand. 



J Kalm's voyage to North America, vol. iii. translated into English by Forster. £9/7<f„ 



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