Biography

Swedish entomologist and botanist. An ill-fated pupil of Linnaeus, Rolander fell out with his teacher after returning from travels in Suriname and spent the rest of his days in poverty. He was the only one of Linnaeus's so-called apostles to be branded a failure, a coward and even a drunk, though the accusations seem unfair and unfounded. His stunted career was largely due to Linnaeus's deliberate sabotage following a disagreement between the two.

Born in Hällebörga, Rolander trained as an entomologist before becoming a student of Linnaeus at Uppsala in 1744. Linnaeus was so impressed by him that he hired Rolander to tutor his son and so Rolander lived with the family for some years in the early 1750s. While in this employment he was invited to travel to the Dutch colony of Suriname, to work as a tutor for the children of plantation owner Carl Dahlberg. Dahlberg promised that Rolander would also have plenty of time to collect natural history specimens, so Linnaeus gave his blessing and watched his departure in 1754, in anticipation of plenty of gifts from Suriname, especially the zoological items in which he was lacking.

Rolander got off to an inauspicious start when he fell ill with a fever in Amsterdam, just as Dahlberg and his party were preparing to travel. They waited for him to recover before sailing in the spring of 1755 for Paramaribo, where Rolander was awestruck by the rich variety of exotic plants and animals. The country also had its negative aspects, however, such as the oppressive climate and numerous hazards to health and safety. For one, there had just been an uprising of slaves at the time that Rolander arrived, and meeting a local doctor he was advised to change career if he wanted to avoid the sombre fate of botanists who had arrived before him, never to complete any work nor return to Europe. He nevertheless went about his business with diligence, excitedly capturing such delights as chameleons and fireflies and discovering local knowledge of plants and animals.

Despite fascinating Rolander, Suriname also infuriated him; he found the climate challenging and the colonists arrogant and stupid, as well as heavy drinkers. He particularly despised the harsh way they treated their slaves. Added to this, Rolander did not have an easygoing personality, but was unsociable and constantly worried about his health since his illness in Amsterdam. By the end of 1755 he had decided to return home, but faced a circuitous journey around the Caribbean before he crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the Dutch port of Texel in April 1756. Penniless, it took him several more months to reach Stockholm, aided by Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

On meeting again with Linnaeus, he held back from showing him his collections, despite Linnaeus' eagerness. Rolander was keen to secure financial support first, either in the form of an appointment or at least monetary backing that would allow him to publish his observations from Suriname. Desperate to see some of the specimens and annoyed by his former pupil's stance, Linnaeus forced his way into Rolander's home and stole material from Suriname. Relations between the two broke down entirely, with Linnaeus making his feelings further known in naming a small beetle, Aphanus rolandri, after Rolander. The genus name is taken from the Greek for ignoble. In 1761, Linnaeus again wielded his influence to upset Rolander by obstructing him in gaining an appointment at Stockholm University.

For a few years, Rolander oversaw the garden of the Seraphimer Hospital in the Swedish capital, but was eager to work at a university so he could resume his entomological research. He sought employment in Denmark after his rejection from Stockholm, to no avail, and instead ended up selling his journal from Suriname and many of his specimens to Christen Friis Rottböll at the University of Copenhagen. Rottböll published descriptions of 40 genera of plants based on the material while Rolander 'retired' to Lund in Sweden, relying on the charity of friends. His collections ended up scattered and unrecognised, echoing the destitute fate of Rolander, who died in 1793. The journals of Linnaeus' other 16 apostles (those who travelled overseas collecting specimens for him) were all published at some point in the 18th-20th centuries, but Rolander's languished in the botanical library of the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, until 2007 when all the apostles' journals were published to mark the tercentenary of Linnaeus' birth.

Sources:
W. Blunt, 2001, The Compleat Naturalist: 185, 201
I. Friis, 1983, "Notes on the Botanical Collections and Publications of Pehr Forsskal", Kew Bulletin, 38(3): 462
S. Pain, 2007, "The forgotten apostle", New Scientist, 195(2615): 41-45.