"P. Collinson,
"Now entered into my 73d year, in perfect health and strength in body and mind. God Almighty be praised and adored for the multitude of his mercies!—March 16th, 1767."
A great part of the correspondence which Collinson had with Linnæus bore a reference to the alleged hibernation of swallows, which the latter, following the authority of certain writers, supposed to retire on the approach of winter to the bottom of lakes and rivers, among reeds and other aquatic plants, where they remain in a torpid state till the beginning of summer. This preposterous idea the Englishman labours to convince his friend ought either to be given up, or established by accurate observation; but, if the great botanist was not too proud to renounce an error, he at least manifested no desire to satisfy his correspondent, nor does it appear that he ever afterwards alluded to the subject in any of his letters.
The other individuals with whom he carried on an epistolary intercourse in England were, Dr Solander, his pupil; Mr Ellis, the first who proved the animal nature of corals and corallines; Mr George Edwards, librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, who produced a work on birds; Mr Pennant, the celebrated author of the British Zoology and other treatises; Mr Catesby, who wrote the Natural History of Carolina; Dr Mitchell, and a few more. Of these Mr Ellis appears to have been his most assiduous correspondent.
Mr Ellis to Linnæus.
"London, December 5, 1766.
"Sir,—I am obliged to you for sending me Dr Garden's account of the Siren. I am sorry I could not get the rest of the things he sent you, before the ship sailed, when I sent you the specimens of plants. I have only got the insects, which are of little value, and the skin of a Siren. The things in spirits are not yet brought on shore; but I hope to get them; and as soon as I have an opportunity, will send them to you. Peter Collinson spent the evening with me, and shewed me a letter you wrote to him about funguses being alive in the seeds, and swimming about like fish. You mention something of it to me in your last letter. If you have examined the seeds of them yourself, and found them to be little animals, I should believe it. Pray, what time of the year, and what kinds? I suppose they must be taken while growing, and in a vigorous state. I intend to try; I think my glass will discover them, if they have animal life in them. The seeds of the Equisetum palustre appear to be alive by their twisting motion, when viewed through the microscope; but that is not animal life.
"I have just finished a collection of the Corallinæ. I think there are thirty-six species; but I believe some of them will prove varieties. I have most of the copperplates that represent them finished. They are the most difficult to examine of all the zoophytes; their pores are so small, and their manner of growing so singular....
"Pray let me know how your Tea-tree grows. It is very odd that, notwithstanding we have had fifteen ships from China this year, we have not had one Tea-tree brought home alive. I have sent a boy to China, whose dependence is on me, to try to bring over several sorts of seeds in wax. I expect him home next summer.
"The English are much obliged to you for your good wishes. We every day see a superiority in the Swedes over the other European nations. All your people that appear among us are polite, well-bred, and learned; without the vanity of the French, the heaviness of the Dutch, or the impudence of the Germans. This last nation has intruded on us swarms of their miserable, half-starved people, from the connexion that our royal family have had with them."
The first voyage of Captain Cook, in which he was accompanied by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Solander, interested Linnæus in a high degree, as he expected from it great accessions to science. On being apprized by Ellis of the return of the expedition in 1771, he thus writes in reply:—