Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein (1636-1691) and Hortus Malabaricus. A Contribution to the History of Dutch Colonial Bo- tany. 1986. 80 figs. XVI,295 p. Lex8vo. Cloth.

Deals with Van Reede's career as a servant of the Dutch East IndiaCompany and his development into an amateur of botany. As commander ofMalabar (the present Kerala, India), during 1670-1677, he organizeddetailed descriptions and large-size illustrations of 740 tropicalplants with the help of Indian and European botanists, physicians,philologists, interpreters, and draughtsmen. The genesis of "HortusMalabaricus" is explained on the basis of "Viridarium Orientale" ofMatthew of St.Joseph, Van Reede's main assistant, as well as thecommentaries by Arnold Syen and Jan Commelin. The insertion of "HortusMalabaricus" in the European botanical literature up to 1800 isdiscussed on the strength of a selection of fifteen pre-Linnaean andLinnaean botanists, including Linnaeus. A number of the originaldrawings of "Hortus Malabaricus" and Matthew's drawings in "ViridariumOrientale" is reproduced here for the first time.