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iv. education and . mental culture.
In his »Philosophia Botanica» he gives an account of what was then known
respecting the external and internal construction of plants; the same work also
contains numerous biological observations and an account of his views with
regard to the description and classification of plants. His journeys in Sweden
were of great importance for the knowledge of the country’s nature and
vegetation. Two of these journeys were made while he -was still a student, namely
to Lappland in 1732 and to Dalarne in 1734, while in later life he travelled
as a professor and at the request of the Riksdag to Öland and Gottland in
1741, to Västergötland and Bohuslän in 1746, and to Skåne in 1749. He
published accounts of his journeys, full of information and interestingly written,
which can be read even at the present day with pleasure. In all his work
Linnæus was more of an arranger and systematizer than a discoverer, and he
has at times been reproached for his scanty interest in the higher branches of
botany, such as vegetable anatomy and physiology. But it should be
remembered that what Linnæus accomplished was without doubt what scientific
research at that time most urgently needed.
Linnæus’ work was of extraordinary importance for the development of
botany in Sweden. It was through him that botany became the »scientia
ama-bilis» of the Swedish people, and he determined the main direction which
Swedish botanical research was to take for the next hundred years. Many
of his enthusiastic disciples visited countries which were at that time
unknown and investigated their vegetation. Among these, the following deserve
to be specially mentioned: P. Löfling (1729—56), who travelled in Spain;
P. Kalm (1716—79), who made journeys of research to North America; F.
Hasselqvist (1722—52), who made investigations in Asia Minor, Palestine,
Arabia, and Egypt; P. Förskal (1732—63), known for his journeys in Egypt and
Arabia; and finally, A. Sparrman (1748—1820), who investigated the vegetable
life of South Africa, and accompanied the great English explorer, J. Cook
{1728—79) on a voyage to the Antarctic regions. The greatest of all these
explorers was, however, K. P. Thunberg (1743—1828), famous all over the
world for his journeys in South Africa and Japan, the flora of which countries
lie described. Among the other disciples of Linnæus in Sweden may be
mentioned in the first place E. Acharius (1757—1819), who devoted himself to the
study of lichens and is considered as the founder of the science of lichenology.
Another botanist who acquired a name by his research work was P. J. Bergius
(1730—90), who, together with his brother B. Bergius (1723—84), donated the
Bergian garden to the Academy of Sciences, with the object of promoting
scientific research and training gardeners.
O. Swartz (1760—1818), who remained true to the traditions of Linnæus
without being his actual disciples, made extensive journeys in North America
and the West Indies and published a number of extremely valuable works,
among which the most important are those dealing with orchids, ferns, and
mosses.
As early as the beginning of the 19th century, botanists make their
appearance in Sweden who may be said to introduce a new period, extending down
to about the middle of the century. Of these, one of the most remarkable was
G. Wahlenberg (1780—1851), an independent investigator, prolific in new ideas.
Pie investigated in particular alpine vegetation, in Lappland, Switzerland, and
the Carpathians. He introduced new and important points of view in the study
of a country’s vegetation by dividing the northern vegetation into various
regions and by demonstrating how its character depends to a great extent on
differences in climate. He takes his stand at the side, of Humboldt as tliei»
founder of botanical geography, and his work »Flora Lapponica». marks an epoch
in this branch of science. Unfortunately Wahlenberg did not train up any
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