TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINNAEUS. 
178 
friend published them * at Copenhagen , and the interesting contents of 
his last letter were communicated to Linnaus+, who called a plant 
after his name — Forskahlea Tenacissma J. 
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 aft as a naturalist in the 
Danish voyage to Arabia must have been, yet the selection of another 
pupil of Lin us 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 Loefling, who went to Spain in 1751, where he 
* Flora jEgyptiaco- Arabics, Hawn. 1775, 4to. — Petri Forskal Descriptiones Ani. 
mail am, Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Inseftorum, Vermium, quae in Itinere Orientali 
observavit; Haim. 177 6 All published by Counsellor J. A Niebuhr — S ymbols Botanic*, 
seu Plantarum, tam earum quas itinere, imprimis Orientali collegit Pet. Forskal, quam 
aliarum recentius deteftarum cxaftiores descriptiones, auftore M. Wahl, profess. &c. 
Ham. 1790, fol. cum 2 j tab. sen. pars. I. 
f See Opobalsamum Declaratum. Upsat, 1764. In the AmmttilaU Academ. vol. vih 
J Counsellor Niebuhr sent Linnajus a copy of Forskal’s work as soon as it was 
printed. Apprehensions had been entertained in Sweden 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 Linnjeus, whose name he 
« never mentioned without reverence, is a faft which needs no repetition. It is sufficiently 
«< proved by his labours and observations. I doubt not but it will entitle him yet to the prase 
•< of posterity. And this was my wish when I endeavoured to preserve his memory in the 
« literary world.”— L inn je us might certainly have chosen a better plant than the Forskalhea 
tenacissima to perpetuate the memory of his pupil. That it contains an allusion t ta 
rafter of the deceased, the Swedes themselves do not deny. Great men have great whims, 
and Linnjeus had his, especially in the denomination of plants. 
1 
acquired 
