TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINNAEUS. 
iSt 
Besides Loe fling, two other pupilsof Linnaeus made a voyage to 
Amenta. The principal among these was Peter Kalm. A patriotic 
thought of Linnaeus occasioned his voyage*. He well knew that 
a species of mulberry tree (morns rubra) grew wild in North America , 
and rose to a fine height in the open districts 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- 
NiEUs 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 
Abo, 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 October 1747, and passed from England to 
North America, where he remained three years. In *751 he returned 
in good health to his country, where he published an account of his 
voyage +, and took upon him the functions of professor of natural 
'* See the Introduction to the Treatise upon the Phalana Bombyx, in the Anuxnitat. Acad. 
•J- From an account of the Economical Journal published at Stockholm in the year 1790, it 
appears that the importation of foreign silk amounts at present to thirty-two thousand pounds 
per annum, of course to the annual sum of 350,000 dollars, Swedish currency. However in 
consequence of the late severe edift issued by the Regent this trade is now quite at a stand. 
J Kalm’s voyage to North America, vol, ii.i, translated into English by Forster. Lond. 
* 77 *. 
history 
