CARL PETTER, an eminent traveller and a distinguished botanist of Sweden, was born on the 11th of November 1743, at Jönköping. He became a pupil of Linnæus at the University of Upsala, where he graduated in medicine in 1770. Thunberg, obtaining the Kohrean prize for three years, set out to visit Holland, where he was induced to embark on a voyage of exploration to the distant island of Java, in quest of vegetable treasures. He sailed as far as the Cape of Good Hope in 1771, and three years afterwards he set sail for the Japan isles. Thunberg remained in that remote region for the next five years, busily engaged in making collections of plants, and in observing the habits, manners, and language of the people. On his return in 1779 he visited England, and made a short stay in London, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Joseph Banks. He found that during his absence his countrymen had not forgotten him. In 1777 he was made demonstrator of botany at Upsala, and he succeeded Linnæus as professor of botany in 1784. Next year he was knighted, and in 1815 he was made commander of the order of Wasa. Thunberg published in 1784 his Flora Japonica; in 1788 he began to publish his travels, which were ultimately completed in 4 vols. This work has been translated into English, French, and German. He completed his next work, the Prodromus Plantarum, in 1800; in 1805 he finished his Icones Plantarum; and in 1813 his Flora Capensis. Thunberg published numerous memoirs in the Transactions of the Swedish, German, French, Dutch, and English scientific societies, and he was chosen an honorary member of sixty-six of those learned associations. Thunberg died on the 8th of August 1828, aged eighty-five.