boo* tanift five new fpecies o f agarici *. Every lover o f icience
>__„_.mult join in wiihing, that the Flora Londinenjis may meet
with all that encouragement which is due to a work that will
honour the age and the nation in which it appears.
Chriftian Oeder, to whom, through the liberality o f his
monarch, we are indebted for the Flora Danica, was the
pupil and friend o f the celebrated Haller, under whom he
was educated at Gottingen. It appears, by Dr. Nugent’s account
of Oeder+, that he vifited England in his younger days,
and had acquired a great knowledge o f the language. Whilft
he was a ftudent at Gottingen, he tranflated all the Engliih
treatifes from a Latin edition o f Dr. Mead’s works, which
Haller publiihed in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1748.
The fucceeding year he took his debtor's degree in phy-
iick, and wrote, 011 that .occaflon, a thefis, which Haller calls
DoSla Dijfertatio contra revul/ionetn derivationem
In the year 17 5 2 , at which period he was fettled at Copenhagen,
the Royal Academy o f Sciences at Gottingen
named him a correfpondent member; and foon after he was
made fuperintendant o f the botanical garden at Copenhagen,
and profeifor. o f botany.
In 1752 Oeder prefided at the publick difputation o f Dr.
Peter Afcanius, and took that occaflon to write on irritability
: a fubjedt on which the experiments and obfervations o f
his great mafter had drawn the attention o f anatomiits and
phyiicians. v
Having performed many journies, accompanied by a
draughtfman, into the different provinces o f Denmark, and
.collected great materials for the intended Flora, he publiihed
* A . Oftreatus ; L y ca t ilis ; Glu tin ofus ; F loc co fu s ; V e lu t ip e s ,
f S e e N u g e n t ’s X w e l s ^ h r e u g h G e rm an y , V o l . L
% M*
in 1762 the firft fafciculus; and in x 7 64, as a part o f his
plan, his Elements of Botany, in 8 vo. This work exhibits a
profound knowledge o f his fubjedt; and the author has
given the outlines o f anew method o f arrangement, adapted
only to the plants o f Europe. The fecond volume o f the
Elements was printed in 176 6 , and is embelliihed with
fourteen excellent plates, explanatory o f the technical part
o f his fubjedt. His fyftem was intended to comprize eight
claffes, under the following titles. 1. Crypt ant her a ; 2.
Monocotyledones; 3. Amantacea-, 4. Incomplete.; 5. Caly-
carpa; 6. Calycantbemse-, 7. Monopetalce-, 8. Polype tala.
O f this fyftem the author has only exemplified the firft
clafs, which he publiihed in a feparate volume in 1770, irr
8 vo, and5 in which are methodically arranged 1239 fpecies,,
with the fpecifick names from Dillenius, Haller, and Liorrtens.
It is greatly to be regretted, that this ingenious natur-
alift has been called from the paths o f fcience by an appointment
to an office in the treafury, where he has ihowed him-
felf no lefs qualified to excel in the civil line.
Upon the publication o f the x ith fafciculus o f the Flora-
Danca, in I 775> the further profecution o f the work was-
committed to the care o f Dr. Otto Frederick Muller, a gentleman
who has fince given to the publick feveral valuable fpe-
cimens of his knowledge in natural- hiftory; particularly a-
curious work under the title o f Bi/loria Zermium ; another
under that o f Zoologm Danica Prodromus-, and is now engaged,
under the higheft patronage, in publiihing the- figures
o f all the rarer animals o f the kingdom o f Denmark,
under the title o f Zoologia Danica leones^ o f which- tw ofaf-
ciculi have made their appearance.