Paul Hermann’s Ceylon Herbarium (1672–1679) at Leiden, the Netherlands

Abstract

Abstract The German physician and botanist Paul Hermann (1646–1695), considered as one of the pioneers of Asian Botany, collected the first plant specimens in the Dutch colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 1670s. Hermann’s collections were bound in several book herbaria, some of which formed the basis of influential 18th century publications: Linnaeus’s Flora Zeylanica and Species plantarum and Burmann’s Thesaurus Zeylanicus . Two of Hermann’s book herbaria, currently kept by Naturalis Biodiversity Center at Leiden, the Netherlands, remained largely unnoticed. Our aim was to identify all specimens of the Leiden Hermann collection, translate his handwritten Latin notes, and analyse both the scientific importance and societal relevance of this historic herbarium. By publishing the entire Leiden Hermann herbarium online, we intend to make this valuable botanical treasure available to the public for the first time in 339 years. The Leiden Hermann herbarium contains 183 specimens, belonging to 157 species (61 families). Striking aspects are the 15 cinnamon specimens, reflecting the interest in the spice trade of Hermann’s employer, the Dutch East Indian Company. Four specimens are probably collected by Rumphius in the Moluccas and 49 species are lacking from Hermann’s other book herbaria kept at London, Paris and Erfurt. Although there are no Linnaean type specimens present in the Leiden volumes, these specimens did form the basis of Hermann’s drawings, species descriptions and notes on local names and plant uses that were published after his death. For 130 specimens, one or more of Hermann’s 17th century Sinhala names are still used in Sri Lanka, although differently spelled and sometimes only partly conserved. Most of the plant uses written on the vouchers or later published in the Musaeum Zeylanicum are still practiced in southern Asia. The manufacturing of gunpowder from charcoal, substitutes for betel chewing and several ritual uses, however, seem to have gone lost or remained undocumented. The Leiden Hermann collection reflects the Dutch colonial quest for valuable spices, materials and medicines, and offers opportunities for ethnobotanical and linguistic research on changes in Sri Lankan plant names and uses over the past centuries. This historic herbarium is also relevant for validating claims on culturally important plant use by Sri Lankan citizens, whose ancestors shared their knowledge and enabled the making of science in the late 17th century.

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