Читать книгу Lachesis Lapponica - Carl von Linné - Страница 6

I set out alone from the city of Upsal on Friday May 12, 1732, at eleven o'clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age.

At this season Nature wore her most cheerful and delightful aspect, and Flora celebrated her nuptials with Phœbus.

Omnia vere vigent et veris tempore florent, Et totus fervet Veneris dulcedine mundus.

Spring clothes the fields and decks the flowery grove,

And all creation glows with life and love.

Now the winter corn was half a foot in height, and the barley had just shot out its blade. The birch, the elm, and the aspen-tree began to put forth their leaves.

Upsal is the ancient seat of government. Its palace was destroyed by fire in 1702. With respect to situation, and variety of prospects, scarcely any city can be compared with this. For the distance of a quarter of a Swedish mile it is surrounded with fertile corn-fields, which are bounded by hills, and the view is terminated by spacious forests.

I had no sooner passed the northern gate of the city than I perceived signs of a clay soil, except in the hills, which consist of sand and stones. The road here is level, and for a quarter of a mile destitute of trees. In ditches by the way side the Water Byssus was observable (Byssus Flos aquæ), particularly in places sheltered from the wind. It greatly resembles the cream of milk, and is called by the peasants Watnet blommar, or Water Flower.

A number of mares with their colts were grazing every where near the road. I remarked the great length of the young animals' legs, which according to common opinion are as long at their birth as they ever will be; therefore if a measure be taken from the hoof up to the knee of a young colt, and so on from the knee to the extremity, it will give the height of the horse when full grown. A similar observation has been made on the size of the bones in the ear of an infant.

I observed the same kind of moss, or rather Lichenoides terrestre, dædaleis sinubus, (Lichen nivalis,) which is found on the hill near the palace at Upsal.

Geese were now accompanied by their goslings, which are all uniformly of the same yellow hue when hatched, whatever colour they may acquire afterwards.

I left old Upsal on the right, with its three large sepulchral mounds or tumuli.

The few plants now in flower were Taraxacum (Leontodon Taraxacum), which Tournefort erroneously combines with Pilosella (Hieracium Pilosella), notwithstanding the reflexed leaves of its calyx; Draba caule nudo (D. verna), which in Smoland is called Rye Flower, because as soon as the husbandman sees it in bloom he is accustomed to sow his Lent corn; Myosotis scorpioides; Viola tricolor and odorata; Thlaspi arvense; Lithospermum arvense; Cyperoides (probably some species of Carex); Juncoides (Juncus campestris); Salix (S. caprea?); Primula veris, as it is called, though neither here nor in other places the first flower of the spring; Caltha palustris, known by the name of Swedish Caper, as many people are said to eat it instead of the true Caper; the report of its giving a colour to butter is certainly false.

The lark was my companion all the way, flying before me quivering in the air.

Ecce suum tirile, tirile, suum tirile tractat1.

The weather was warm and serene. Now and then a refreshing breeze sprang up from the west, and a rising cloud was observable in that quarter.

Okstad (more properly Högsta) is a mile and a quarter from Upsal. Here the forests began to thicken. The charming lark, which had till now attended my steps, here left me; but another bird welcomed my approach to the forest, the Red-wing, or Turdus iliacus, whose amorous warblings from the tops of the Spruce Fir were no less delightful. Its lofty and varied notes rival those of the Nightingale herself.

In the forest innumerable dwarf Firs are to be seen, whose diminutive height bears no proportion to their thick trunks, their lowermost branches being on a level with the uppermost, and the leading shoot entirely wanting. It seems as if all the branches came from one centre, like those of a palm, and that the top had been cut off. I attribute this to the soil, and could not but admire it as the pruning of Nature. This form of the Fir has been called Pinus plicata.

Läby is a mile and a quarter further. Here the forest abounds with the Red Spanish Whortle-berry (Arbutus Uva Ursi), which was now in blossom, and of which, as it had not been scientifically described, I made a description; (see Flora Lapponica; and Engl. Bot. t. 714.)

A large and dreary pine-forest next presented itself, in which the herbaceous plants seemed almost starved, and in their place the soil, which was hardly two inches deep, all below that depth being pure barren sand (Arena Glarea), bore Heath (Erica), Hypnum parietinum, and some Lichens of the tribe called coralloides.

Above a quarter of a mile beyond the post-house, near the road, is a Runic monument; but I did not allow myself time to copy the inscription, finding it had lately been deciphered by somebody else.

A quarter of a mile further stands a land-mark of a curious construction, consisting of four flattish upright stones placed in a square, with a fifth in their centre.

I discovered a large stone of the kind called Ludus Helmontii2, and, wishing to break it, I took a smaller stone, which proved to be of the same kind. My endeavours were vain as to the former; but the small one broke into many fragments, and proved to contain minute prismatic crystals, which were quite transparent; some white, others of a deep yellow.

Before the next post-house, I noticed on the right a little farm, and on the other side of the way a small ditch used to wash in. Here stood a plain sloping stone of white granite, in which were three large dark-grey squares, seeming to have been inlaid by a skilful stone-cutter. It was evident, however, on examining one end, that they were continued through the whole substance of the stone.

Opposite to Yfre is a little river, the water of which would at this time have hardly covered the tops of my shoes, though the banks are at least five ells in height. This has been occasioned either by the water continually carrying away the loose sand, or, as I am more inclined to believe, the quantity of water is less than it has been.

Chrysosplenium (alternifolium) was now in blossom. Tournefort defines it foliis auriculatis, but erroneously, as the leaves are all separate and distinct3. It has eight stamens, placed in a quadrangular position, and two pistils. Thus it evidently approaches nearer to the Saxifragæ, as former botanists have justly thought, than to the campaniformes, or flowers with a monopetalous corolla.

At Yfre, two miles further, I noticed young kids, under whose chins, at the commencement of the throat, were a pair of tubercles, like those sometimes seen in pigs, about an inch long, of the thickness of their mother's nipples, and clothed with a few scattered hairs. Of their use I am ignorant.

Near the church of Tierp runs a stream, whose bank on the side where it makes a curvature is very high and steep, owing to timber placed close to the water. The great power of a current, and the way in which it undermines the ground, is exceedingly visible at this place. Hence the strongest earthen ramparts, made with the greatest expense and labour, are often found insufficient to secure the foundations of large palaces or churches in some situations. But where timber has been used, the attacks of water are little to be dreaded. On both sides of the church were several small sepulchral mounds. It now grew late, and I hastened to Mehede, two miles and a half further, where I slept.