Kalm, Per

In April 1730, Kalm began to study at a school in the city of Vaasa , and after graduating in 1735 he entered the Royal Academy of Abo , the only higher education institution in Finland at that time. In 1740, Kalm entered Uppsala University , where, among other things, he studied botany under the guidance of the great Swedish natural scientist Karl Linnaeus , as well as astronomy under the guidance of Anders Celsius ^[4] .

In 1747, a new professorship was established at the Royal Academy of Abo ( Turku ) - in economics. Applying for the position, Kalm wrote that "the professor of economics can make an invaluable contribution to the implementation of measures proposed by representatives of the estates and aimed at increasing the wealth of Finland." Having received the position, including with the support of Karl Linnaeus , Kalm remained in it until his death in 1779 ^[4] .

Kalm’s appointment as a professor of economics was partly due to the organization and financing of the long-planned Swedish expedition to North America. The expedition began in October 1747; Kalm returned to Stockholm only at the end of May 1751. Preparation and publication of expedition materials was very slow, between 1753-1761, three volumes were published in Swedish under the title "Journey to North America." Kalm never finished preparing the last, fourth, volume, some of the materials burned during a fire at the Royal Academy of Abo in 1827, the surviving parts of the fourth volume were published only in 1920 ^[4] .

After returning from the expedition, Kalm was actively engaged in the cultivation of North American plants from imported seeds , but did not achieve much success in this ^[4] .

From the surviving letter of Johann Falk , another “ Apostle Linnaeus, ” it is known that the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg offered Kalma to move to Russia, but he, as Falk wrote to Linnaeus, “preferring his Chukhon calm to the Petersburg splendor, refused it” ^[5] . Judging by his correspondence, Linnaeus was dissatisfied with this circumstance, in connection with which, in a letter to St. Petersburg academician Gerhard Miller, he did not speak too flattering about Kalma. In April 1764, recommending Miller to the post of agricultural specialist another of his students, , he wrote: “I can assert with all the decisiveness that I should give absolute preference to Fagre over three Kalmas - as if I had a solid education and in the sharpness of the mind ” ^[2] .

Under the guidance of Kalma, as a professor of economics, 146 academic dissertations were published, some of which he himself wrote according to the customs of that time. The subject matter of most of these dissertations was purely applied in nature: substantiating the need to improve forestry, creating a botanical garden, treating diseases in animals, disposing of weed grass, and the possibility of creating a coffee substitute . Some dissertations were devoted to the description of cities and provinces of Finland ^[4] .

• P. Kalms Mag. Doc. Västgötha och Bohusländska resa (1746)
• En resa till Norra Amerika Teil I — III (1753-1761)
• Flora fennica (1765)

Karl Linney , a teacher of Calma, named after his student the genus of North American beautifully flowering evergreen shrubs from the family of Heather ( Ericaceae ) - Kalmia L. ( Kalmya ). One of the species of this genus, narrow-leaved calcium ( Kalmia angustifolia ), Kalm brought from his expedition to North America and grown in Sweden ^[3] .

Indirectly, the name Kalma is related to three more names of the genera from the Heather family, formed from the name of the genus Kalmia :

• Kalmiella Small ( Kalmiella )
• Kalmiopsis Rehder ( Kalmiopsis ) is a monotypic genus of undersized shrubs from Oregon , USA .
• × Kalmiothamnus Starling ( Kalmiothamnus ) = [ Kalmiopsis Rehder × Rhodothamnus Lindl. & Paxton ]

About two dozen plant species are also named after Kalma; such taxa have species epithets kalmii . A list of such taxa can be found in the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) database ^[6] .

In 1940, the Finnish astronomer Liisi Otherma (the first woman to be a doctor of astronomy in Finland) discovered an asteroid, later named after Per Kalma: .

On January 28, 2011, the Mint of Finland began to mint a coin of 10 euros with the image of Per Kalma (within the framework of the single European series “European Researchers”). On the obverse of the coin depicts broad-leaved calcium ( Kalmia latifolia ), on the reverse - the inscription APOSTOLUS LINNAEI (“The Apostles of Linnaeus”) and Per Kal on the background of Niagara Falls ^[7] .

• Bobrov E.G. Karl Linney. 1707-1778 : [ arch. March 22, 2016 ]. - L .: Nauka, 1970 .-- 285 p. - 7000 copies.
• Kallinen M. Per Kalm (1716-1779): professor of economics, traveler-natural scientist = Kalm, Pehr (1716-1779) : talousopin professori, tutkimusmatkailija: [trans. with fin. ] // One Hundred Great Finns : A Kaleidoscope of Biographies: [ arch. December 18, 2012 ] / ed. ; per. with fin. I.M.Solomeshcha. - Helsinki : Society of Finnish Literature , 2004. - 814 p. - ISBN 951-746-522X . ( One Hundred Great Finns )

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