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318 COXk’s TRAYELS IN DENMARK.
chiefly drew the materials for his Hiftory of Norway, and he acknowledges himfelf
nore indebted to Snorro than to any other writer.
Irom the fourteenth century, hiftory and letters gradually declined in Iceland, and
it was Involved in the fame darknefs which had overfpread Europe. ‘The reformation,
which was introduced in the middle of the fixteenth century, occafioned the revival of
{cience.. Although there never have been wanting among the inhabitants men of con-
fiderable learning, yet, as knowledge has widely diffufed itfelf in Sweden and Denmark
under the protection of their fovereigns, thefe kingdoms have become greatly en-
lightened, and Iceland is no longer the fole repofitory of northern genius *.
Although the Danifh literati have direGed their chief attention to hiftory and anti-
quities ; yet they have by no means been deficient in the ftudy of nature.
Vrederic V., the late King of Denmark, a munificent patron of the {ciences, founded,
in 1753, a botanical garden, intended principal! ly to facilitate a liberal defign of giving
a complete hiftory, and engravings of all the native plants in the Danifh dominions | Fp
The fuperintendance of this garden, (with a ftipend,) and afterwards the profeflorfhip
of botany in the Royal Academy of Copenhagen, were conferred on Mr. Oeder, who
was chofen to conduct the work. In profecution of this defign, he vifited at the King’s
expence various parts of Denmark and Nor way, and began the publication in 1762.
‘The Flora Danica was intended to contain, in the folio form, figures of all the in-
digenous plants of Denmark, Norway, thofe of the duchies of Slefwick and Holftein,
and of many from Iceland; a tract of country extending more than fixteen degrees,
between the fifty-fourth degree of latitude and the North Cape. A hiftory of all thefe
plants, in octavo, was alfo promifed ; but this part of the plan has not yet been com-
pleted.
Of this Flora Danica, a number, or fa/cicu/us, containing fixty plates, was intended
to be annually publifhed; the firft came forth in 1762, but, according to the ufual
fate of periodical undertakings of fuch confiderable extent, feveral caufes have retarded
its regular progrefs, and the fifteenth fa/cicu/us only, completing the number of nine
hundred plates, or five volumes, made its appearance in 1782. This work may be
purchafed either coloured or plain. ‘The names of the plants are not engraved on the
plates; neither from the nature of the fubject could any regular method or fyftem be
obferved. . ‘The plants are feparately figured; each engraving contains one plant only,
except in thofe of the clafs Cryptogamia, where, in fome inftances, feveral are given in
the fame plate. Prefixed to each fa/ciculus isa nomenclature, with the Linnean names,
a few felect fynonyms, and an account of the places of growth. As often as the fize
will admit, the plant is exhibited in the natural magnitude; in others, a branch only,
and in moft inftances, the parts of fructification are feparately delineated ; an article in-
difpenfable to botanical accuracy. In fome of the larger plants, befide the branch of
the natural fize, the whole is given on a reduced fcale; but it muft be confefled, that
this part of the defign is the leaft meritorious; happily it does not often occur.
The twelfth fa/cicwlus, in 1777, was accompanied with an index of all the plants
already engraved, or intended to be contained in this work ; by which it appears, that
* Tam chiefly indebted for information upon the literary hiftory of Iceland to Mallet’s North. Antiq.
tranflated by Dr. Percy, Bifhop of Dromore; Von Troil’s Letters on Iceland, tranflated by Torlter ;
Torfei Hift. Norw. ; Snorro Sturlenfis Hift. Regum Norw.; and the feveral publications of the Ice-
landic writers printed at Copenhagen.
+ This account of tke Flora Danica, and of Meffrs. Oeder and Muller, was chiefly communicated to
me by Dr. Pulteney, to whom 1 have been fo repeatedly obliged.
$ the
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