248
RICHARD WARNER AS VIEWED BY KALM.
BY BENJAMIN DAYDON JACKSON, R.N.O. (SWEDEN) J HON. Ph.D.,
ETC.
PETER KALM (1716-1779) was one of Linnaeus's foremost
pupils, "Studiosus primarius" was the epithet used
by the Swedish naturalist of him ; he travelled at the expense
of Baron S. C. Bjelke in Sweden, Finland and Russia. In 1747,
upon Linnaeus's powerful initiative, Kalm was commissioned
to embark on a journey to North America, which was com-
pleted in 1751. Previous to his departure, he was nominated
the first occupant of the new Chair of Economy in the University
of Abo, Finland, and took up his duties soon after his return to
Europe, discharging them until his death.
On his way out he had to wait six months in England for a
ship to Philadelphia, largely owing to the insecurity at sea due
to the War of the Austrian Succession. During this enforced
stay in our country, he not only acquired an excellent knowledge
of English but travelled in the neighbourhood of
London, to observe the farming appliances and customs,
with the view of improving agricultural practice in Finland.
He was most active in procuring seeds for Linnaeus at Uppsala
and in cultivating a friendship with prominent cultivators, par-
ticularly with Richard Warner (1711-1775), of Woodford, Essex,
and Philip Miller (1691-1771), of the Apothecaries' garden at
Chelsea. The extracts which are appended are translated from
the letters which have been recently published in the 8th volume
of the first section of the Linnean correspondence issued by the
University of Uppsala with the help of the Swedish Govern-
ment. Forty-one letters from him to his revered professor are
printed in this volume but only one from Linnaeus. Kalm
explained that he had sewn up Linnaeus's letters into a volume,
and this probably perished in the terrible fire which devastated
the town and University of Abo in 1827.
Attention has been recently directed to a list of American
seeds which Kalm drew up on his return home ; see Journ.
Bot., lx. (1922), pp. 334-5.
London, 24TH March, 1748.
"From the Royal Academy of Science [in Stockholm] I received the
address of Herr Abraham Spalding, to supply me with what I wanted ; if