The “true Boerhaave herbarium”: an analysis of the specimens of Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) contained in the Van Royen collection at naturalis

Abstract

Collecting plant specimens and making herbarium specimens was quintessential for an 18th century botanist. If we want to know more about how botanists in the early 18th century approached the science of botany we need to study the plant specimens themselves.Several dried plant specimens in a large 18 th century herbarium kept at Naturalis, Leiden, have at one time been identified as originating from Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738). These specimens have now been studied extensively and their origin established.We updated the existing identifications of the plant specimens and studied the way the specimens were mounted, the handwritings on the various labels and the use of decorations.The aim of this study was to establish which specimens came from Boerhaave and why relative few of them survived.We established which specimens were 'true' Boerhaave specimens. We completed the identification of most specimens and linked the extant labels to the seed register of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. The transcription of the text on the labels labels provided us with valuable information about the introduction and cultivation of indigenous and exotic, predominantly Mediterranean, plant species.Little effort has been put into connecting the contribution by Boerhaave with the output of the living collection of the Leiden Hortus botanicus at the time, that is, the herbarium specimens we now know to have been named by Boerhaave. By studying these specimens in their entirety we made his contribution visible.

The D’Oignies Herbarium: Contents and Origins of an early 18th Century Dutch Plant Collection in the Netherlands

“…'Chamaedrys 6:v:v:R:' (L.3961031), used here to describe a specimen of Teucrium chamaedrys L. can not refer to the 'Prodromus' because Van Royen considered the genus 'Chamaedrys' obsolete. 'Chamaedrys 6' in Boerhaave's catalogue, on the other hand, 'a Spanish, small-leaved and multi-owered Chamaedrys', matches the description on a label in Boerhaave's own hand of a Teucrium chamaedrys L. (L 0142396) (Offerhaus et al 2022).…”

“…As they must have been assigned with some purpose in mind, the numbers at the bottom of the sheet may have been related to an index that listed the yearly sowing. (Offerhaus et al 2022) (Fig. 9 near here).…”

“…The botanical slips of paper Linnaeus made use of also come to mind, though Linnaeus approached his slips far more methodical (Charmantier & Müller-Wille 2014). If these loose tags survived at all, they were glued onto the sheets for the purpose of conservation around 1900, as is clear from the Boerhaave specimens and the Van Royen collection (Offerhaus et al 2022). We therefore assume that the original tags were discarded after D'Oignies had copied the names on the sheets and in an index (Fig.…”

“…In both herbaria, plant names were switched due to the presence of loose tags, that -by their naturecould easily be misplaced (Offerhaus et al, 2021(Offerhaus et al, , 2022. This tallies with the function of a garden herbarium, which could have been created to facilitate identi cation without determining it and to record what species had been successfully cultivated.…”

“…The 3709 specimens of the Clifford herbaria have been published online and partially researched (Ek 2011; Jarvis 2016a; Thijsse 2018). On the Bioportal of Naturalis Biodiversity Center (https://bioportal.naturalis.nl/) the specimens attributed to Herman Boerhaave (1668Boerhaave ( -1738, curator of the Leiden botanical garden and professor of botany (Offerhaus et al 2022) and the 3059 specimens of Nicolaas Meerburgh (1734-1814), gardener in the Leiden botanical garden under curators Adriaan and David van Royen (1734-1799) and Sebald Brugmans (1763-1819), have been published. The 9719 specimens associated with the curators of the Leiden botanical garden, Adriaan (1704-1779) and David van Royen (1727-1799), have been partially published and partially studied (Thijsse 2023).…”