The Van Royen Herbarium
National Herbarium of the Netherlands
About this herbarium
Adrianus van Royen was born in Leiden on 11 November 1704. He studied medicine and botany under Herman Boerhaave and obtained his Ph.D. in 1728. In 1732 he became Professor in these subjects and as such he was one of the few allowed to make extensive collections in the Leiden Botanic Garden, then a centre of novelties brought in by the ships of the V.O.C. (Dutch East India Company) from all over the world.
No wonder that Linnaeus during his frequent visits to Leiden between 1735 and 1738 struck up a close friendship with this other dedicated botanist, which lasted a life time. This was the period in which Linnaeus formulated his ideas on taxonomy and nomenclature that made him famous. Together Linnaeus and Van Royen botanized in the Botanic Gardens of Leiden and Amsterdam, the surrounding areas and studied the numerous natural objects available in the world famous collections of the Dutch cabinets to which Van Royen, because of his social standing, had easy access. During the last winter of his stay in Holland Linnaeus lived at Van Royen's house. Also during that winter Linnaeus was a member of a medical fellowship with a.o. Gronovius and Van Swieten. They met on Saturday evenings (Turner, 1835), on which occasions Linnaeus without doubt discussed his budding ideas. Van Royen and Linnaeus collaborated with Johannes Burman of Amsterdam in the production of Rumphius' Herbarium Amboinense (1741-1755). In all, a close social and scientific relationship between Linnaeus and Adriaan van Royen and his collections is evident. This herbarium is one of the few not his own that Linnaeus could study extensively over 3 years of time. He also assisted in the production of Van Royen's Florae Leydensis Prodromus (1740) based on it. In this work the species then growing in the Garden and around Leiden were enumerated according to the Linnean tenets. The value Linnaeus placed on it is evident from the fact that it is always the first non-Linnean citation given in the Species Plantarum (1753). Several of the new species published in it are exclusively based on Van Royen's collections of dried and living plants.
Many sheets in A. van Royen's Herbarium have the plants mounted in the pots and other paraphernalia that were customary in mid-18th Century Dutch collections. On these sheets the text that was used for the Prodromus is written and subsequently cited more or less verbatim by Linnaeus in the Species Plantarum. By consequence the Herbarium contains a great number of syntypes and even holotypes of Linnean names and is therefore one of the major herbaria to be consulted in solving problems in nomenclature and typification. The Herbarium may contain as many as 2000-3000 specimens relevant for the typification of Linnaean names (Wijnands, 1983).
The Herbarium passed on to Van Royen's nephew and successor, David van Royen (1727-1799), who greatly enlarged it. David van Royen corresponded with Linnaeus as is witnessed from the notes on the sheets. It is known that in 1769, 1771 and 1777 he received dried plants from Ceylon. Also, Governor Rijk Tulbagh sent dried or living plants from the Cape to Leiden in 1752, which were collected by Auge. Later on Thunberg regularly sent dried plants from the Cape (Karsten, 1939); he also donated a collection of Japanese plants in 1778 (Miquel, 1865).
Before the Van Royen Herbarium came to the Rijksherbarium, it was preserved in the Leiden Botanic Garden. When visiting the Garden in 1824, J.A. Schultes communicated that the collection of Van Royen was "still fairly large". Amongst it he saw a parcel from Jac. Breyne and one of Vaillant. There were parcels from Thunberg, on several of which was written "Plantae Capensis", as well as several parcels "Planta Zeylanensis," one of them "ex herbario Hermanniano" (Schultes, 1824).
The specimens belonging to the Van Royen Herbarium are now kept separate. Before that they were incorporated in the general collections. From time to time still specimens which have belonged to the Van Royens are (re)discovered. Generally the sheets are annotated 'Hb. Royen' in a 19th century unknown handwriting. In some cases these annotations are clearly wrong and some sheets that have to be considered as genuine Van Royen material lack this annotation.
It is not always easy to attribute specimens as having belonged to the holdings of Adriaan and David van Royen. Sheets annotated with Linnean binomina and references to later Linnean works, often the 2nd edition of the Species Plantarum, in the handwriting of David van Royen, can of course be attributed to their herbarium. The sheets on which in Adriaan van Royen's handwriting a full reference is given to his Prodromus of 1740, and to earlier synonyms of e.g., Hermann and Commelin, are obviously his own specimens. Because the collections of Adriaan came into the possession of David it is not exceptional that sheets are found on which both handwritings are present.
At unspecified times collections from various sources have been incorporated in their herbarium: specimens can be found originating from H. Boerhaave, J. Burman, G. Clifford, J.F. Gronovius, A. von Haller, P. Hermann, B. de Jussieu, J.G. Koenig, Fr. Ruysch, C.P. Thunberg, J.P. de Tournefort, Séb. Vaillant, and many others. On some sheets several labels with different handwritings are pasted. In these cases often more than one dried plant of the same species is mounted on the sheet. At the time the Van Royen herbarium was part of the collections of Leiden University, the dried plants belonging to the same species, but originating from different collections, were probably kept in a single folder. In the process of remounting the collections of the University for the Rijksherbarium, these may have been mounted on one sheet.
An additional complication in attributing specimens to the Van Royen herbarium are the specimens from the Meerburg herbarium. Nicolaas Meerburg (1734-1814) was Hortulanus of the Leiden Botanical Garden under David van Royen. It is known that he also was in the possession of a herbarium. Except specimens from Van Royen, his herbarium contained collections from a.o. Dillenius, and Haller, just as the Van Royen collections. For this and above mentioned reasons it is obvious that one can not always be absolutely certain that a specimen, now preserved in the Van Royen herbarium, really belonged to the original holdings of the Van Royens. Such specimens have been included for completeness sake.
Apart from the sheets in the Rijksherbarium, other Van Royen material, both of Adriaan and David is represented in LINN, S-Linn, BM-Cliff, OXF-Sherard, G-Burman, G-DC, San Francisco-Houston, and the herbarium of J.E. Smith in Liverpool (LIV).
The Van Royens were also in the posession of a carpological collection. This collection has been studied by Joseph Gaertner (1732-1791) during his visit to Leiden in 1778. Here and in the Botanical Garden he found many new fruits and seeds mainly from the East Indies of which he was allowed to take home representative specimens (Stafleu, 1969). In his "De fructibus et seminibus plantarum" (1788¾1791) Gaertner described new taxa on the basis of seeds and fruits from the Van Royen collections. Therefore this part of the Van Royen collections contains a number of his types.
From the now remaining part it can be deduced that this carpological cabinet for the greater part was formed by seeds from Ceylon. On the labels of these Ceylonese specimens J.G. Koenig (1728-1785) is mentioned as collector. The labels show dates between 1754 and 1758, therefore it is impossible that Koenig has been the collector. Koenig collected on Ceylon in 1777, 1780 and 1781. (Heniger, 1988). Most probably these seeds are the remains of the seeds that were sent each year from Ceylon to the Botanical Gardens of Amsterdam and Leiden. This carpological collection has also been included in these microfiches.
G. Thijsse, J.F. Veldkamp
Literature
Heniger, J., 1988. “Botanisch onderzoek op Ceylon in de V.O.C.- tijd,” in: R. Kromhout (ed.). Het machtige Eylant. Ceylon en de V.O.C. ('s Gravenhage: SDU).
Karsten, M.C., 1939. “Carl Peter Thunberg. An early investigator of Cape Botany,” in: Journal of South African Botany 5: 1-27; 87-104; 105-155.
Miquel, F.A.W., 1865. Verslag over den staat van 's Rijks Herbarium te Leiden, en de aldaar verrigte werkzaamheden gedurende het jaar 1865 (Leiden).
Schultes, J.A., 1824. “Auszug aus einem Schreiben an Se. Excellenz, den Herrn Grafen de Bray u.s.w.,” in: Flora 7 (46): 721-727.
Stafleu, F.A., 1969. “Joseph Gaertner and his carpologica,” in: Acta. Bot. Neerl. 18 (1): 216-223.
Turner, D., 1835. Extracts from the literary and scientific correspondence of Richard Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., of Brierley, Yorkshire (Yarmouth).
Wijnands, D.O., 1983. The botany of the Commelins (Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema).
This collection includes:
• Herbarium A. Van Royen (1704-1779) – Part 1
• Herbarium A. Van Royen (1704-1779) – Part 2: Supplement
National Herbarium of the Netherlands
About this herbarium
Adrianus van Royen was born in Leiden on 11 November 1704. He studied medicine and botany under Herman Boerhaave and obtained his Ph.D. in 1728. In 1732 he became Professor in these subjects and as such he was one of the few allowed to make extensive collections in the Leiden Botanic Garden, then a centre of novelties brought in by the ships of the V.O.C. (Dutch East India Company) from all over the world.
No wonder that Linnaeus during his frequent visits to Leiden between 1735 and 1738 struck up a close friendship with this other dedicated botanist, which lasted a life time. This was the period in which Linnaeus formulated his ideas on taxonomy and nomenclature that made him famous. Together Linnaeus and Van Royen botanized in the Botanic Gardens of Leiden and Amsterdam, the surrounding areas and studied the numerous natural objects available in the world famous collections of the Dutch cabinets to which Van Royen, because of his social standing, had easy access. During the last winter of his stay in Holland Linnaeus lived at Van Royen's house. Also during that winter Linnaeus was a member of a medical fellowship with a.o. Gronovius and Van Swieten. They met on Saturday evenings (Turner, 1835), on which occasions Linnaeus without doubt discussed his budding ideas. Van Royen and Linnaeus collaborated with Johannes Burman of Amsterdam in the production of Rumphius' Herbarium Amboinense (1741-1755). In all, a close social and scientific relationship between Linnaeus and Adriaan van Royen and his collections is evident. This herbarium is one of the few not his own that Linnaeus could study extensively over 3 years of time. He also assisted in the production of Van Royen's Florae Leydensis Prodromus (1740) based on it. In this work the species then growing in the Garden and around Leiden were enumerated according to the Linnean tenets. The value Linnaeus placed on it is evident from the fact that it is always the first non-Linnean citation given in the Species Plantarum (1753). Several of the new species published in it are exclusively based on Van Royen's collections of dried and living plants.
Many sheets in A. van Royen's Herbarium have the plants mounted in the pots and other paraphernalia that were customary in mid-18th Century Dutch collections. On these sheets the text that was used for the Prodromus is written and subsequently cited more or less verbatim by Linnaeus in the Species Plantarum. By consequence the Herbarium contains a great number of syntypes and even holotypes of Linnean names and is therefore one of the major herbaria to be consulted in solving problems in nomenclature and typification. The Herbarium may contain as many as 2000-3000 specimens relevant for the typification of Linnaean names (Wijnands, 1983).
The Herbarium passed on to Van Royen's nephew and successor, David van Royen (1727-1799), who greatly enlarged it. David van Royen corresponded with Linnaeus as is witnessed from the notes on the sheets. It is known that in 1769, 1771 and 1777 he received dried plants from Ceylon. Also, Governor Rijk Tulbagh sent dried or living plants from the Cape to Leiden in 1752, which were collected by Auge. Later on Thunberg regularly sent dried plants from the Cape (Karsten, 1939); he also donated a collection of Japanese plants in 1778 (Miquel, 1865).
Before the Van Royen Herbarium came to the Rijksherbarium, it was preserved in the Leiden Botanic Garden. When visiting the Garden in 1824, J.A. Schultes communicated that the collection of Van Royen was "still fairly large". Amongst it he saw a parcel from Jac. Breyne and one of Vaillant. There were parcels from Thunberg, on several of which was written "Plantae Capensis", as well as several parcels "Planta Zeylanensis," one of them "ex herbario Hermanniano" (Schultes, 1824).
The specimens belonging to the Van Royen Herbarium are now kept separate. Before that they were incorporated in the general collections. From time to time still specimens which have belonged to the Van Royens are (re)discovered. Generally the sheets are annotated 'Hb. Royen' in a 19th century unknown handwriting. In some cases these annotations are clearly wrong and some sheets that have to be considered as genuine Van Royen material lack this annotation.
It is not always easy to attribute specimens as having belonged to the holdings of Adriaan and David van Royen. Sheets annotated with Linnean binomina and references to later Linnean works, often the 2nd edition of the Species Plantarum, in the handwriting of David van Royen, can of course be attributed to their herbarium. The sheets on which in Adriaan van Royen's handwriting a full reference is given to his Prodromus of 1740, and to earlier synonyms of e.g., Hermann and Commelin, are obviously his own specimens. Because the collections of Adriaan came into the possession of David it is not exceptional that sheets are found on which both handwritings are present.
At unspecified times collections from various sources have been incorporated in their herbarium: specimens can be found originating from H. Boerhaave, J. Burman, G. Clifford, J.F. Gronovius, A. von Haller, P. Hermann, B. de Jussieu, J.G. Koenig, Fr. Ruysch, C.P. Thunberg, J.P. de Tournefort, Séb. Vaillant, and many others. On some sheets several labels with different handwritings are pasted. In these cases often more than one dried plant of the same species is mounted on the sheet. At the time the Van Royen herbarium was part of the collections of Leiden University, the dried plants belonging to the same species, but originating from different collections, were probably kept in a single folder. In the process of remounting the collections of the University for the Rijksherbarium, these may have been mounted on one sheet.
An additional complication in attributing specimens to the Van Royen herbarium are the specimens from the Meerburg herbarium. Nicolaas Meerburg (1734-1814) was Hortulanus of the Leiden Botanical Garden under David van Royen. It is known that he also was in the possession of a herbarium. Except specimens from Van Royen, his herbarium contained collections from a.o. Dillenius, and Haller, just as the Van Royen collections. For this and above mentioned reasons it is obvious that one can not always be absolutely certain that a specimen, now preserved in the Van Royen herbarium, really belonged to the original holdings of the Van Royens. Such specimens have been included for completeness sake.
Apart from the sheets in the Rijksherbarium, other Van Royen material, both of Adriaan and David is represented in LINN, S-Linn, BM-Cliff, OXF-Sherard, G-Burman, G-DC, San Francisco-Houston, and the herbarium of J.E. Smith in Liverpool (LIV).
The Van Royens were also in the posession of a carpological collection. This collection has been studied by Joseph Gaertner (1732-1791) during his visit to Leiden in 1778. Here and in the Botanical Garden he found many new fruits and seeds mainly from the East Indies of which he was allowed to take home representative specimens (Stafleu, 1969). In his "De fructibus et seminibus plantarum" (1788¾1791) Gaertner described new taxa on the basis of seeds and fruits from the Van Royen collections. Therefore this part of the Van Royen collections contains a number of his types.
From the now remaining part it can be deduced that this carpological cabinet for the greater part was formed by seeds from Ceylon. On the labels of these Ceylonese specimens J.G. Koenig (1728-1785) is mentioned as collector. The labels show dates between 1754 and 1758, therefore it is impossible that Koenig has been the collector. Koenig collected on Ceylon in 1777, 1780 and 1781. (Heniger, 1988). Most probably these seeds are the remains of the seeds that were sent each year from Ceylon to the Botanical Gardens of Amsterdam and Leiden. This carpological collection has also been included in these microfiches.
G. Thijsse, J.F. Veldkamp
Literature
Heniger, J., 1988. “Botanisch onderzoek op Ceylon in de V.O.C.- tijd,” in: R. Kromhout (ed.). Het machtige Eylant. Ceylon en de V.O.C. ('s Gravenhage: SDU).
Karsten, M.C., 1939. “Carl Peter Thunberg. An early investigator of Cape Botany,” in: Journal of South African Botany 5: 1-27; 87-104; 105-155.
Miquel, F.A.W., 1865. Verslag over den staat van 's Rijks Herbarium te Leiden, en de aldaar verrigte werkzaamheden gedurende het jaar 1865 (Leiden).
Schultes, J.A., 1824. “Auszug aus einem Schreiben an Se. Excellenz, den Herrn Grafen de Bray u.s.w.,” in: Flora 7 (46): 721-727.
Stafleu, F.A., 1969. “Joseph Gaertner and his carpologica,” in: Acta. Bot. Neerl. 18 (1): 216-223.
Turner, D., 1835. Extracts from the literary and scientific correspondence of Richard Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., of Brierley, Yorkshire (Yarmouth).
Wijnands, D.O., 1983. The botany of the Commelins (Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema).
This collection includes:
• Herbarium A. Van Royen (1704-1779) – Part 1
• Herbarium A. Van Royen (1704-1779) – Part 2: Supplement
