EARLY INVESTIGATIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN FLORA 
7 1 
We have now reached 1753, the year in which the most 
important of Linnaeus’ botanical works was printed, viz. the 
Species plantarum. The number of species characteristic of N. 
America which he had mentioned in his earlier works, amounts 
to about 250. In Spec, plant, the number is over 700. Of 
these 75 seem to be new to science, as Linnaeus has no quota¬ 
tion from any other author attached to them. Among these 700 
N. American species there are 90 in whose cases we find Kalm 
mentioned as the discoverer of the species, mostly in this form: 
»in Pensylvania. Kalm.», »in Canada. Kalm.», or »in America 
septentrionali. Kalm.» In some cases (Polygala s an guinea, Hy¬ 
pericum Kalmianum, Chironia angularis) the native country is 
said to be »Virginia», which must be a mistake, for in a letter 
to Linnaeus (Apr. 5 th 1751) Kalm states that he has never been 
in Virginia. In many instances the species for which we find a 
reference to Kalm are not new ones, as we can see by the quo¬ 
tation of some older writer, and the mention of Kalm therefore 
only implies that Linnaeus has founded his opinion of it on a 
specimen of Ivalm’s. But nearly 60 of these species are new 
ones, and of these about 50 are still valid. Kalm’s contribution 
to our knowledge of the N. American Flora has thus been of 
some importance. 
With regard to the authorship of these species, there can 
be no doubt that they are described by Linnaeus, although with 
the help of Ivalm’s notes. In a letter written in 1751 (to be 
published in Bref och skrifvelser, I: 6) Kalm expresses a wish 
that Linnaeus might describe all his new plants, and if it seemed 
proper, to mention that he had got the specimens from Kalm, 
who had collected them at the place where they grow naturally. 
From this and other letters we are also informed that Kalm had 
sent Linnaeus his own descriptions made from the living plants. 
One letter contains very detailed descriptions of some species. 
In the later works of Linnaeus, Systema naturse ed. X (1759), 
Spec, plant, ed. II (1762—63), Mantissa (1767) and Mantissa II 
( 1 77 1 ), we fOd about 75 species from N. America wich are not 
mentioned in Spec, plant, of 1753. One third of these are new 
