The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, founded in 1856, was a veterinary and agricultural science university in Copenhagen, Denmark, until its merger with the University of Copenhagen in 2007.
Surrounding the buildings, designed by Gottlieb Bindesbøll, are its unique gardens, which house a diverse collection of over 6,000 plants and flowers.
Salomon Thomas Nicolai Drejer
The series draws on a book by the Danish botanist Salomon Thomas Nicolai Drejer (born February 15th, 1813, Eveldrup; died June 10th, 1842, Copenhagen), published in 1838, at which point Drejer was 25 years old.
“Exergue. From philosophy, rhetoric. That is, here, to make from a volume, approximately, more or less, a flower, to extract a flower, to mount it, or rather to have it mount itself, bring itself to light – and turning away, as from itself, come round again, such a flower engraves – learning to cultivate, by means of a lapidary’s reckoning, patient . . .” — Jacques Derrida, in Alan Bass’s translation, Margins of Philosophy, 1971.
Stepping Outside Itself
The word exergue, from the Greek ex (out of) and ergon (work), designates the space on a coin beneath the main image, a margin that belongs to the object yet stands apart from its central design.
Derrida uses the term to open both “White Mythology” in Margins of Philosophy, from which this passage is drawn, and the first chapter of Specters of Marx, which furnishes the title of The Time Is Out of Joint series.
In both cases, the exergue marks a threshold where philosophy begins by stepping outside itself: through a flower in one instance, through a ghost in the other. The flower extracted from the volume and the specter that enters and exits the stage are structurally alike: they appear, withdraw, and reappear, refusing to stay either fully present or fully absent.
What links the two series, Flora Excursoria Hafniensis, and The Time Is Out of Joint, then, is not only Derrida but a shared logic of haunting: of things that come to light only to reveal that they were never entirely hidden.
Flora Danica
From 1841 to 1842, Drejer served as editor of Flora Danica. He did not complete the work due to his untimely death from nicotine poisoning.
Drejer’s contribution to Flora Danica, one of the most comprehensive botanical atlases of the Enlightenment, was published posthumously in 1843 in collaboration with fellow botanists Joakim Frederik Schouw and Jens Vahl.
1838 Edition of ‘Flora Excursoria Hafniensis’
The book comprises 340 pages, including an unnumbered errata page at the very end. The photo shows a first edition from 1838, which I acquired about a year ago from Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn.
Both Latin and Danish names are provided in the index and species listings. The Danish ones often strikingly poetic: Agermaane, hjortetröst, hörsilke, natskygge, remslæbe, skovstjerne, troldurt, tusindfryd, vandkryber, vandnavle, vinterblomme og vedbend, for example.
Also see: About Danish Artist Kasper Bergholt
Composita and Chronotopic Value
There is something chronotopic in the act of naming itself. Drejer’s Danish common names – tusindfryd, skovstjerne, vandnavle, vinterblomme – are vernacular condensations of time and place, folk knowledge compressed into single words, semantically; and two-word paradigmatic-syntagmatic compressions structurally.
Interestingly, all are composita that carry within them a history of encounter between people and plants in a specific landscape in and around Copenhagen.
They stand in tension with the Linnaean system’s aspiration to a placeless, timeless universality. Bakhtin would have recognized this as a form of heteroglossia operating within a single text: two languages inhabiting the same page of the Flora, one reaching toward the logosphere of scientific reason, the other rooted in the chronotope of lived, local experience.
“And then by diagrams (another mathematical metaphor, or more precisely, at least a geometrical metaphor, but this time garnished with a flower, in order to present the field of a meta-metaphorics): “If the present work could be retained as a basis for a physics or a chemistry of reverie, as the outline of a method for determining the objective conditions of reverie, it should offer new instruments for an objective literary criticism in the most precise sense of the term.
It should demonstrate that metaphors are not simple idealizations which take off like rockets only to display their insignificance on bursting in the sky, but that on the contrary metaphors summon one another and are more coordinated than sensations, so much so that a poetic mind is purely and simply a syntax of metaphors.
Each poet should then be represented by a diagram which would indicate the meaning and the symmetry of his metaphorical coordinations, exactly as the diagram of a flower fixes the meaning and the symmetries of its floral action. There is no real flower that does not have this geometrical pattern. Similarly, there can be no poetic flowering without a certain synthesis of poetic images.
One should not, however, see in this thesis a desire to limit poetic liberty, to impose a logic or a reality (which is the same thing) on the poet’s creation. It is objectively, after the event, after the full flowering, that we wish to discover the realism and the inner logic of a poetic work. At times some truly diverse images that one had considered to be quite opposed, incongruous and noncohesive, will come together and fuse into one charming image. The strangeness of Surrealism will suddenly reveal a continuity of meaning.“
Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire, trans. A. C. M. Ross (Boston: Beacon Press), pp. 109-10, quoted from ‘White Mythology – The Flowers or Rhetoric’, Margins of Philosophy, Jacques Derrida, 1972.
Salomon Drejer’s Preface to Flora Excursoria Hafniensis (1838) in English
<```htmlSalomon Drejer’s Preface to Flora Excursoria Hafniensis (1838) — in English
PREFATORY REMARKS
The territory whose plants I have proposed to enumerate encompasses the islands of Zealand and Møn. I have called it the Copenhagen flora because the capital, as the seat of the university and the botanical garden, is almost always the point of departure for botanical excursions. — To provide as complete an enumeration as possible of the phanerogamous plants, as well as of a number of cryptogams (ferns, clubmosses, horsetails) of this territory; to add diagnoses as accurate as possible, by the aid of which beginners on excursions may safely look up the names of plants; to bring the nomenclature more into agreement with that used by foreign botanists, so that we may at last approach them in this respect; to employ a concept of species by which alone we may eventually arrive at a knowledge of true species: — this is the aim which I have always kept in view in composing this little work, and which I have constantly endeavoured with all my powers to attain. How far I have approached this aim, let candid critics judge, and those who are properly acquainted with the state of Danish botany. That I have not spared myself in the labour, I trust will not escape anyone who compares my book with its sources.
Concerning the arrangement of the work, only a few prefatory remarks need be made. That the sexual system has been employed will doubtless displease no one; more perhaps will regret that an arrangement of the plants according to one of the so-called natural systems has not been given at the same time. This I certainly wished, and I did not hesitate for a moment in choosing the Reichenbachian system, which is the only one that has so far given an idea of a truly natural system (though many steps still remain before it can be perfected), and all the less so because it is so little known to our botanists; — but the constraints of time and space stood in the way, to which was added the fact that an excursion book intended for practical use is hardly a suitable place for a system entirely new to us.
I have admitted more genera than we are accustomed to see in our books, yet fewer than I could wish and consider natural; for I am convinced that before the broader, truly natural genera can be formed — or rather recognized — they must first be defined within much narrower limits. But I did not wish to use too many new names here, lest the change appear too abrupt to those already accustomed to the old ones. Many what I consider true genera I have noted within the limits of the older ones as subgenera (cf. Veronica, Festuca, Viola, Lychnis, Trifolium, etc.), and some I have noted by name in place of synonyms (Allium, etc.). In this matter I have kept as close as I could, perhaps less than I should have.
Some may object that I have used too loose a concept of species in establishing them, and have enumerated more than nature has actually placed there, although I do not doubt that I shall find as many admirers of this as critics. I could have evaded the question by replying that in a book designed for excursions this is of less importance, since it need only indicate what is to be observed and not positively assert certainties; but I will not deny that most of the species I have enumerated appear to me to be truly natural ones, and the learned reader will not fail to notice that my concept of species is essentially Reichenbachian, for the further defence of which this is not the place. Concerning the few species proposed as new, of which some I have described from dried specimens, I must note that they have been deliberately proposed as doubtful, in accordance with Wulfen’s golden maxim: in cases of doubt it is better to distinguish than to confuse. By proposing these doubtful species, I hope that the truth may come to light more quickly and that the practical side of the science may benefit. — It is regrettable that I have not observed some critical genera sufficiently: if I had wished to write a complete flora, I should certainly have had to wait until everything had been thoroughly investigated by myself; but that a field flora — by which alone a complete Danish flora, suited to the times and progress of science, can be prepared — could not appear before its time, can scarcely be doubted. What was less well known to me I have supplemented by compiling, noting at the same time what is owed to me and what to others. Such genera include Verbascum, Hieracium, Salix, and some grasses.
I have not always distinguished varieties, except in species less well known with regard to their history and life, and I frankly confess that I do not know what the thing is to which so doubtful, so confused, so arbitrary a designation is applied. In species whose development is clear, I have distinguished forms — primary, secondary and derived (cf. Lythrum) — but only where these forms differ sufficiently in habit.
In citing synonyms I have been sparing and have only cited those which serve to find the species more easily: the source of all descriptive Danish botany, the Flora of the distinguished Hornemann (Dansk oeconomisk Plantelære), and the Flora Danica, the glory of our national literature; further, the beautiful Iconographia of Reichenbach, more rarely Svensk Botanik, English Botany, and where the matter required it, various others. — Among the descriptive works of foreign botanists I have made principal use of the writings of the distinguished gentlemen Fries, Hartman, Koch, Reichenbach, without neglecting others. I greatly regret that I received Fries’s Flora Scanica when it was already more than half printed, and that his Herbarium normale plantarum rariorum et criticarum Sveciæ was first brought to me when I was correcting the final sheet for the first time. Some things I might perhaps have presented better had I seen it earlier, but I am now unable to indicate them more precisely. It should be noted here that Rubus thyrsiflorus hb. norm. is nearly the same as my R. vulgaris β; that after Euphrasia gracilis the name of Fries should again be placed (despite a certain critic in Linnæa XI, p. 154); that Triticum strictum hb. norm. (hardly Detharding’s) is the same as my Agropyrum adfine; and that a specimen of Statices Limonii Bahusiensis further confirms my arrangement of the genus, etc. — What can be corrected regarding Hieracia, Salices, etc. from that work, I defer to another time and place.
I have been compelled to explain a number of terms in the notes which are not found in our manuals.
It remains to name with due gratitude the supporters and friends who assisted me in person while I was composing this little work. First to be named is the distinguished Hornemann, who with his customary kindness left his herbaria and manuscripts at my disposal; then I. Vahl, the foremost explorer of the Greenlandic flora, who most kindly offered me access to his very rich herbarium, adorned with many authentic specimens from the distinguished gentlemen E. Meyer, Nolte, Hampe, Zuccarini, Fries, Hartman, Brebison, etc.; the most friendly Liebman and Kamphövener, whose collections and manuscripts I have used as my own; furthermore Aabye, now at Nyborg, Steenberg pharmacist at Helsingør, Steenbuch physician of the county of Holsteinborg, Poulsen candidate in pharmacy, Petit in medicine, Lange students of theology, Ehrenreich gardener at Borreby. To all of these I express most warmly the gratitude I feel.
And so, kind reader! make use of my book — and be indulgent toward my Latin.
The Author.
Salomon Drejers fortale til Flora Excursoria Hafniensis (1838) — in Latin
PRÆMONENDA.
Territorium, cujus plantas enumerare mihi proposui, insulas Sjælland et Möen amplectitur. Hafniensem floram vocavi qvia metropolis, universitatis et horti botanici sedes, fere semper locus est a qvo fit exitus excursionum botanicarum. — Enumerationem dare qvam integerrimam plantarum phanerogamarum nec non paucarum cryptogamarum (Filicum, Lycopodiorum, Eqvisetorum) hujus territorii; diagnoses adjicere qvam adcuratissimas, qvarum ope tirones excurrentes nomina plantarum tute inqvirant; nomenclaturam magis ei qva utuntur exteri botanici congruam facere, ut tandem iis hac ratione adpropinqvemus; notione speciei uti qva sola ad cognitionem specierum verarum olim perveniamus: — ecce scopum qvem in elaborando hocce opusculo semper adspexi, qvemqve ut adseqverem pro virili semper contendebam. Huic scopo qvantum adpropinqvarem, judicent critici ingenui et qvi rationes botanices Danicæ rite noverunt. Labori me non pepercisse spero fore ut neminem fallat, qvi librum meum cum fontibus comparaverit.
Rationem operis qvod adtinct, pauca modo præmonenda sunt. Systema sexuale adhibitum esse nemini sine dubio displicebit; magis forsan, dispositionem plantarum secundum systema qvoddam, ex iis qvæ naturalia vulgo dicuntur, non simul esse datam. Hoc sane optabam, nec in eligendo Reichenbachiano, qvod solum hucusqve ideam systematis vere naturalis dedit (qvod ut perficiatur tamen multi adhuc restant gradus percurrendi), ne momento qvidem, hæsitavi, eoqve minus, qvo magis botanicis nostris incognitum est; — obstabant vero angustiæ temporis lociqve, cui accedebat qvod liber excursorius practico usui destinatus vix idoneus est systemati nobis plane novo locus.
Genera plura admisi qvam qvæ in libris nostris videre solemus, pauciora tamen qvam optavi qvæqve pro naturalibus habeo; prius enim qvam genera latiora vere naturalia formari vel potius cognosci possunt multo angustiora rite esse limitanda, persvasum mihi habeo. Sed hoc loco nimis multis novis nominibus uti nolui, ne justo subita iis videatur mutatio, qvi jam antiqvis consveverunt. Multa mihi vera genera intra terminos antiqvorum ut subgenera notavi (cfr. Veronica, Festuca, Viola, Lychnis, Trifolium cet.), nonnulla nomine notavi synonymorum loco (Allium cet.). Qva in re qvantum potui, minus forsan qvam debui, mihi constiti.
In speciebus constituendis me notione nimis laxa usum esse, et plures enumerasse qvam vere natura posuit, qvidam forsan mihi objicient, qvamqvam non dubito æqve multos laudatores hujus rei me habiturum ac vituperatores. Interrogantibus me subducere hoc loco potuissem respondendo, id in libro excursionibus adcommodato minoris esse momenti, qvum hic modo indicari debeant qvæ sunt observanda, nec positive certa modo adferenda; infitias autem non ibo, plerasqve a me enumeratas species vere naturales mihi videri, nec lectorem doctum latebit, notionem meam speciei fere esse Reichenbachianam, cui ulterius defendendæ hic non est locus. De paucis tantum pro novis habitis speciebus, qvarum aliqvot e sicco descripsi, monere necesse, eas de industria qvamqvam dubias esse propositas, adprobato aureo illo dicto Wulfenii: in dubiis præstat distinguere qvam confundere. Propositis his dubiis speciebus spero fore, ut veritas citius illucescat et practicæ scientiæ parti consulatur. — Dolendum aliqvot genera critica a me non satis esse observata: si floram integram scribere vellem, certe mihi exspectandum esset donec omnia a me ipso satis fuissent explorata; floram excursoriam autem, qvâ solâ integra flora Danica, temporibus et progressibus scientiæ adcommodata, præparari potest, non ante tempus in lucem prodire posse, vix dubitandum. Qvæ mihi ipsi minus nota fuerunt, ea compilando supplevi, indicatis simul qvæ mihi qvæ aliis debentur. Talia genera sunt Verbascum, Hieracium, Salix, gramina nonnulla.
Varietates semper non distinxi, nisi in speciebus minus qvoad historiam et vitam cognitis, et ingenue fateor me nescire, qvæ sit res cui denominatio tam dubia, tam confusa, tam arbitraria inditur. In speciebus qvarum evolutio clara est, formas distinxi, et qvidem primarias, secundarias et derivatas (cfr. Lythrum), verum ne id qvidem nisi hæ formæ habitu satis diverso distinguntur.
In Synonymis adlegandis parcus fui et modo ea citavi qvæ speciei facilius inveniendæ inserviunt: fontem omnis botanicæ descriptivæ Daniæ, Floram cl. Hornemanni (Dansk oeconomisk Plantelære), et Floram Danicam, litterarum patriæ decus; porro Iconographiam pulcherrimam Reichenbachii, rarius Svensk Botanik, English Botany, et ubi res postulabat, varia alia. — Ex operibus descriptivus botanicorum exterorum præcipue usus sum scriptis cll. Virr. Friesii, Hartmanni, Kochii, Reichenbachii, aliis haud neglectis. Valde doleo, Floram Scanicam Friesii me accepisse typis excussa jam plus dimidia parte, et Herbarium normale plantarum rariorum et criticarum Sveciæ Ejusdem tum primum mihi adlatum esse, qvum prima vice plagulam ultimam corrigebam. Nonnulla ex eo melius forsan exposuissem si prius vidissem, qvæ tamen adcuratius indicare nunc neqveo. Notandum h. l. Rubum thyrsiflorum hb. norm. esse fere meum R. vulgarem β; post Euphrasiam gracilem nomen Friesii iterum esse ponendum (pace critici cujusdam in Linnæa XI. p. 154.) Triticum strictum hb. norm. (vix Dethardingii) idem esse ac Agropyrum adfine m.; specimine Statices Limonii Bahusiensis ulterius confirmari meam generis dispositionem, e. s. p. — Qvæ de Hieraciis, Salicibus, cet. ex eo emendari possunt, ea jam in aliud tempus locumqve differo.
Terminos nonnullos in notis explicare coactus fui, qvi in manualibus nostris non reperiuntur.
Restat ut debitâ gratiâ fautores et amicos nominem, qvi me opusculum elaborantem præsentes adjuverunt. Et primus nominandus est Illustr. Hornemann, qvi solita humanitate herbaria et manuscripta mihi disponenda reliqvit; tum I. Vahl, Grønlandicæ floræ optimus indagator, qvi herbarium ditissimum et speciminibus multis authenticis cl. virorum E. Meyer, Nolte, Hampe, Zuccarini, Fries, Hartman, Brebison etc. ornatum perlustrandum mihi humanissime obtulit; Liebman amicissimus et Kamphövener, qvorum collectionibus et manuscriptis tamqvam meis ipsius usus sum; porro Aabye, nunc apud Nibenses, Steenberg apud Helsingøranos pharmacopolæ, Steenbuch comitatus Holsteinborg medicus, Poulsen, pharmaciæ candidatus, Petit medicinæ, Lange theologiæ studiosi, Ehrenreich hortulanus Borrebyensis. Omnibus his gratiam qvam habeo humanissime refero.
Et sic, lector benevole! libro meo utere et — latinitati meæ indulge.
Autor.
