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-chiefly' drew the materials for his Hi dory of Norway , and he acknowledges hunnlfmore indebted to Snorro than to any other writer.
-From the fourteenth century, hiftory and letters gradually declined in Iceland , andiuwas involved in the fame darknefs which had overfpread Europe . The reformation,which was introduced in the middle of the ftxteenth century, occafioned the revival offcience. Although there never have been wanting among the inhabitants men of con-liderable learning, yet, as knowledge has widely diffufed itfelf in Sweden and Denmark under the protection of their fovereigns, thefe kingdoms have become greatly en-lightened, and Iceland is no longer the foie repofitory of northern genius *.
Although the Danifli literati have directed their chief attention to hiftory ana anti-quities ; yet they have by no means been deficient in the ftudy of nature.
Frederic V., the late King of Denmark, a munificent patron of the fciences, founded,la 1753, a botanical garden, intended principally to facilitate a liberal defign of givinga complete hiftory, and engravings of all the native plants in the Danifli dominions 7,The fuperintendance of this garden, (with a ftipend,) and afterwards the profefforftupof botany in the Royal Academy of Copenhagen , were conferred on Mr. Oeder, whowas choien to conduft the work. In profecution of this defign, he vifited at the King’sexpence various parts of Denmark and Norway , and began the publication in 1762.
The Flora Danica was intended to contain, in the folio form, figures of ail the in-digenous plants of Denmark, Norway , thofe of the duchies of Slefvvick and Holftein,and of many from Iceland ; a trad of country extending more than fixteen degrees,between the fifty-fourth degree of latitude and the North Cape . A hiftory of all thefeplants, in odtavo, was alfo promifed ; but this part of the plan has not yet been com-pleted.
Of this Flora Danica , a number, or fafciculus , containing fixty plates, was intendedto be annually publifhed; the firft came forth in 1762, but, according to the ufualfate of periodical undertakings of fuch confiderable extent, feveral caufes have retardedits regular progrefs, ancl the fifteenth fafciculus only, completing the number of ninehundred plates, or five volumes, made its appearance in 1782. This work may bepurchafed either coloured or plain. The names of the plants are not engraved on theplafes; neither from the nature of the fubjed could any regular method or fyftem beobferved. The plants are feparately figured; each engraving contains one plant only,except in thofe of the clafs Cryptogamia, where, in fome inftances, feveral are given inthe fame plate. Prefixed to each fafciculus is a nomenclature, with the Linnaean names,a few feled fynonyms, and an account of the places of growth. As often as the fizewill admit, the plant is exhibited in the natural magnitude; in others, a branch only,and in moft inftances, the parts of fructification are feparately delineated ; an article in-difpenfabie to botanical accuracy. In fome of the larger plants, befide the branch ofthe natural fize, the whole is given on a reduced fcale; but it muft be confeffed, thatthis part of the defign is the leaft meritorious; happily it does not often occur.
The twelfth fafciculus', in 1777, was accompanied with an index of all the plantsalready engraved, or intended to be contained in this work; by w r hich it appears, that
* lam chiefly indebted for information upon the literary hiflory of Iceland to Mallet’s North. Antiq.tranfiated by Dr, Percy, Bilhop of Dromore ; Von Troil’s Letters on Iceland , tranflated by Forfter;Torftei Hilt. Norw. ; Snorro Sturlenfis Hitt. Regum Norw. ; and the feveral publications of the Ice-landic writers printed at Copenhagen .
f This account of the Flora Danica , and of MelTrs. Oeder and Muller, was chiefly communicated to,sne by Dr. Pulteney, to whom 1 have been fo repeatedly obliged.
8 the