Litteras tuas 4 Nov[embris][1] datas accepi, ex quibus dolui intelligere, quod Loasae semina non germinaverint. Si potero obtinere primo vere semina recentia, mittam certe. Semina Cleomes giganteae nunc incipiunt maturare in caldariis. Haec copiosa habebo, unde potero denuo mittere recentissima, si eges. Habeo etiam semina pauca recentissima trifolii mei Pannonici, Observ[ationum] fasciculi mei II, tab. 42, et Nepetae lanatae, Obs[ervationum] part. III, tab. 75.[2] Si haec etiam desideras, mittam.
Miratus fui plantam novam Dioneam insecta capientem.
En inclusam denuo plantulam ex Carpathicis, quam siccam acceptam determinare nequeo. Si novisti, quaeso, iudices.[3]
Sed ad litteras meas XXV Augusti Schemnitio[4] datas non respondisti vel certe non accepi responsionem tuam, quae perdita tunc fuit. In illis mittebam Saxifragam, Cynosurum, Poam, etc. ex Carpaticis alpibus interrogans te, num in Speciebus tuis hae plantae essent. Quare, quaeso, mihi responde.
Nunc igitur prima vice Viennensi in Academia Systema[5] tuum proxima aestate a me explicabitur. Vere Linnaeus sum nunc solus hic, sed faciam certe plures.
Inclusas domino Tidströmio tradas, rogo. Quando ille ad me missurus est mineras, posses facile addere plantas quasdam siccas, quas habebis rariores in duplo plurimas, tum et semina quaedam qualiacunque pro horto meo. Idem ego faciam vicissim.
Pro missis plantulis ago gratias. Viennae adhuc nulla pars Systematis tui comparari potest, nec visa ibi est. Ignoro, cur tam difficulter hic Suecica opera haberi possint, imprimis tua. Wallerii Metallurgiam[6] jam emi. Duo dumtaxat exemplaria adlata Viennam fuerunt. Constitit mihi sesquiaureo ducato, pretio sane enormi. Quanto igitur Holmiae opus hoc venditur?
SUMMARY
Nicolaus Joseph von Jacquin received Linnaeus’s letter on 4 November, from which he learnt that the seeds of Loasa did not germinate. New ones will be sent if possible. The seeds of Cleome gigantea begin to ripen in the hothouses. He will therefore have many of them should Linnaeus need them. There are also a few seeds of his Trifolium Pannonicum (Observationes, fasc. II, tab. 42), and of Nepeta lanata (Observationes, part. III, tab. 75).
He was amazed at the new plant, Dionea, which eats insects. A dried plant from the Carpathians cannot be identified and Linnaeus’s help is requested. Jacquin sent a letter on 25 August, in which he enclosed Saxifraga, Cynosurus, Poa, etc. from the Carpathians and inquired if Linnaeus had these in his species. He has, however, had no answer.
This summer Linnaeus’s Systema will for the first time be lectured upon by Jacquin at the university of Vienna. Jacquin is the only true Linnaean in Vienna but he will see to it that there will be others.
Linnaeus is asked to give the enclosed minerals to Anders Philip Tidström. When Tidström sends Jacquin minerals, Linnaeus could easily add some dried plants, some rare ones of which he may have duplicates, and also some seeds for the garden. Jacquin will do the same.
Jacquin expresses his gratitude for the cuttings that Linnaeus has sent. In Vienna no copy of Linnaeus’s Systema can be found. It is so hard to get hold of Swedish works, especially Linnaeus’s. He has recently bought Johan Gottschalk Wallerius’s Metallurgia, of which there are only two copies in Vienna. It cost him the sum of one and a half gold ducats. He asks how much this work costs in Stockholm.
NOTES
[1] Linnaeus to Jacquin, 4 November 1768.
[2] Jacquin, Observationum botanicarum iconibus ab auctore delineatis illustratarum [...] pars I-IV et ultima.
[3] At the end of the letter Linnaeus noted: “Arenaria salerica, ni fallor”. See the reply by Linnaeus, 12 January 1769: “Planta Tua, nisi valde fallor, est Arenaria balearica descripta in appendice ad. Syst. nat. tom. 3. p. 230”.
[4] Chemnitz, Slovakia.
[5] Linnaeus, Systema naturae.
[6] Wallerius, Elementa metallurgiae.