[1] The discovery of the plant in question is related in the _Flora
Lapponica_ in so interesting a manner, that we cannot refrain from
translating the passage. See the second edition, p. 135.
"I met with this plant but once, and that throughout a journey of four
hours, over the celebrated mountain of Wallivari in the district of
Lulea, towards a tract of country which lies about half way between the
northern and western part, where it grew in great abundance.
"Whilst I was walking quickly along, in a profuse perspiration, facing
the cold wind, at midnight; if I may call it night when the sun was
shining without setting at all; still anxiously inquiring of my
interpreter how near we were to a Lapland dwelling, which I had for two
hours been expecting, though I knew not its precise situation; casting
my eager eyes around me in all directions, I perceived as it were the
shadow of this plant, but did not stop to examine it, taking it for the
_Empetrum_. But after going a few steps further, an idea of its being
something I was unacquainted with came across my mind, and I turned
back; when I should again have taken it for the _Empetrum_, had not its
greater height caused me to consider it with more attention. I know not
what it is that so deceives the sight in our Alps during the night, as
to render objects far less distinct than in the middle of the day,
though the sun shines equally bright. The sun being near the horizon,
spreads its rays in such a horizontal direction, that a hat can scarcely
protect our eyes: besides, the shadows of plants are so infinitely
extended, and so confounded with each other, from the tremulous
agitation caused by the blustering wind, that objects very different in
themselves are scarcely to be distinguished from each other. Having
gathered one of these plants, I looked about and found several more in
the neighbourhood, all on the north side, where they grew in plenty; but
I never met with the same in any other place afterwards. As at this time
they had lost their flowers, and were ripening seed, it was not till
after I had sought for a very long time that I met with a single flower,
which was white, shaped like a lily of the valley, but with five sharper
divisions."
[2] This strange passage is presumed to allude to a little gun, four or
five inches long, still shown in the arsenal at Stockholm, with which
vulgar report says the famous Queen Christina used to kill fleas.
[3] It is not impossible that Linnæus might be misled here by the
prejudices of his time, or by those of the people from whom he obtained
his account.
[4] The whole of this account of the hay consists, in the manuscript, of
such concise, disjointed, and obscure notes, that we are by no means
certain of having preserved the exact sense.
[5] La Motraye, after describing the Lapland sledge, observes that "it
is attached by a single trace or thong, passing under the belly of the
reindeer, and fixed to a leather collar which goes round the animal's
neck. A long cord made of twisted fir bark, tied to his horns, serves,
when pulled in a straight line, to stop his course, or, when drawn
toward either side, to turn him in that direction. When this cord is
made to strike him gently, by a vertical motion, on the back, it urges
him to greater speed. The overturn of the sledge, where the road is
uneven, is prevented by a stick, which serves, like the oar or paddle of
a boat, to guide its course."
[6] Linnæus records this misfortune in his _Flora Lapponica_, at n. 42,
see ed. 2. p. 27, where, in speaking of _Arundo Calamagrostis_, he says
he "presumes the synonyms are rightly applied, though he had no
opportunity of comparing his plant with books and descriptions, having
lost the specimen, with various other natural productions, by being cast
away as he was descending one of the great rivers of Lapland." The
synonym of Morison at least, which he has thus by memory applied, proves
to be erroneous.
[7] This account does not agree with the description in the _Flora
Lapponica_, but is the most correct.
[8] This also is correct.
[9] A few further remarks on the above subject, printed in the _Flora
Lapponica_, may be acceptable to the English reader.
"This disease made no regular progress, nor was it communicated by
infection from one animal to another. The cows are driven all together
in the spring to feed in a meadow, near the town, to the southwest, on
the other side of a creek of the river, in which I was informed the
greatest mortality happened. The symptoms differ in different cases; but
all the cattle, feeding indiscriminately, are seized with a swelling of
the abdomen, attended with convulsions, and die with horrid bellowing,
in the space of a few days. No person dares venture to flay the recent
carcases, it having been found by experience that not only the hands,
but even the face, in consequence of the warm steams from the body,
became inflamed and gangrenous, and that death finally ensued.
"I was asked whether this disease was a kind of plague; whether the
meadow in question produced any venomous spiders; or whether the
yellow-coloured water was poisonous.
"That it was no plague appeared from its not being contagious, and from
the spring being its most fatal season. I saw no spiders here, except
what are common throughout all Sweden; nor was the yellow sediment of
the water any thing more than a common innocent ochre of iron.
"I had scarcely landed from the boat in which I was taken to this
meadow, than the _Cicuta_ presented itself before me, and explained the
cause of all this destruction. It is most abundant in the meadow where
the cattle are first seized with the distemper, especially near the
shore. The slightest observation teaches us that brute animals
distinguish, by natural instinct, such plants as are wholesome to them,
from such as are poisonous. The cattle therefore do not eat this Hemlock
in summer or autumn; whence few of them perish at those seasons, and
such only as devour the herb in question incautiously, or from an
inordinate appetite. But when they are first turned out in the spring,
partly from their eagerness for fresh herbage, partly from their long
fasting and starvation, they seize with avidity whatever comes within
their reach. The herbage is then but short, and insufficient to satisfy
them; probably also it is in general more succulent, immersed under
water, and scarcely perceptibly scented; so that they are unable to
distinguish the wholesome from the pernicious kinds. I remarked every
where that the radical leaves only were cropped, no others; which
confirmed what I have asserted. In a neighbouring meadow I saw this same
plant cut with the hay for winter food; so that it is no wonder if in
that state some, even of the more cautious cattle, are destroyed by it."
_Fl. Lapp. ed._ 2. 76.
[10] This plant is not mentioned in the _Flora Lapponica_, and the
account annexed seems to belong to _Ligusticum scoticum_, n. 107 of that
work, with which it well agrees.
[11] Linnæus in this description denominates these leaflets, whether of
the general or partial involucrum, _radii_, a term he always
subsequently used for the stalks of the umbels.
[12] King Charles the Eleventh, on his visit to Tornea in 1694, was
accompanied by Count G. Douglas the Lord Lieutenant, Count Piper
Counsellor of Chancery, J. Hoghusen Counsellor of the Board of War, and
some other learned men, and in the night between the 13th and 14th of
June saw, from the belfry of the church, the midnight sun, at that time
visible there to a person placed on such an elevation. The year
following, Professors Bilberg and Spole were sent to Tornea to repeat
these observations. The royal visit to Tornea was commemorated by a
medal struck on the occasion, having on one side the bust of the king;
on the reverse, a representation of the sun half above the horizon, with
this motto, _Soli inocciduo Sol obvius alter_; and beneath, _Iter Regis
ad Botniam Occidentalem_, _Mense Junio_ 1694.
[13] _Stegerhusen._ I have not been able to make out the precise meaning
of this word.
[14] John Messenius, famous for his learning and his misfortunes, was
professor of law and politics at Upsal, in the reign of the great
Gustavus Adolphus, who had a high esteem for him, and who exerted all
his wisdom, and even his power, to allay the envy and hatred of some of
the colleagues of this able man, especially of John Rudbeck, a malignant
though learned theologian. The king in vain endeavoured to pacify
Rudbeck by preferment, while he removed Messenius to Stockholm, and made
him a member of the new council established there. The latter was
formally accused of being a secret partisan of the deposed catholic king
Sigismond, and was condemned to a perpetual prison, where he composed a
great work entitled _Scandia illustrata_, published at Stockholm between
the years 1700 and 1714. Messenius died in 1636. His son Arnold might be
justified for detesting those who had persecuted his illustrious father,
but not for the folly of expressing his feelings in satirical
publications against people in power. For this he paid with his life on
the scaffold in 1648, and his own son, aged about 17, suffered with him.
[15] In the Journal, vol. i. 101, Linnæus speaks of Mr. Oladron as the
curate of Lycksele, and his wife.
[16] The manuscript says July 1st, but this does not agree with the
original journal, which therefore I have followed. See the first page of
this volume.
[17] _Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 154. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 3. 1287._
[18] We know not what species the author intends by this name.
* * * * *