Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Treub, Melchior

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

 

Born: 1851, Voorschoten, Z.H., Holland. Died: 1910, Saint Raphaël, SW of Cannes, France.

 

career:

Biologist, from 1880-1909 Director of the Buitenzorg Botanic Gardens, since 1905 Director of Agriculture besides. Under his management the Gardens became an institute of world-fame, where numerous foreign scientists worked for some time.

He is the author of several papers, mainly on the morphology of the Balanophoraceae, Loranthaceae, Lycopodiaceae, etc., and on physiology, published in the ‘Annales’ of the Gardens. The history and development of his institute was at several occasions described by him.

He is commemorated in the well-known moss genus Treubia, and in several other plant genera and species.

 

Collecting localities:

1880-1909. During his term of office at Buitenzorg, he probably occasionally collected in W. Java,1 especially in the vicinity of Buitenzorg and Tjibodas, but hardly any data are known; in 1882 he climbed G. Salak; visited Krakatau on June 19 and 24, 1886.2-Tour to the Moluccas etc., 1893.3 Attended by mantri Jaheri (see there), the tour totally taking 2 months, leaving Buitenzorg on Sept. 2. He visited Ambon: vicinity of the principal town (Soja di atas, Soja di bawah) and the north coast (Hitoe lama, Hila, Seit, ‘Maspait’); Banda Islands: Groot and Klein-Banda, G. Api; Ceram: Waha(a)i etc. on the north coast, and Amahai and vicinity on the south coast; Ceram laoet Islands: Gisser (= Geser) and Ceram laoet; SW. New Guinea: Ati-Ati-Onin, Skroë (Oct. 10); Kei (= Kai) Islands: Oeboer and Klein Kai; Aroe Islands: P. Wokam, P. Wamar, Dobo, etc.; Tanimbar Islands: P. Larat, P. Se(j)ra; Zuidooster & Zuidooster Islands: P. Babber (= Babar), P. Dammer (= Damar), P. Let(t)i, P. Kisser (= Kisar), P. Wetter (=Wetar); Saparoea; on the voyage home touching at Makassar (SW. Celebes).-1894. Sumatra East Coast (Sept. 12-23):4 Deli, Langkat and Serdang, with the special purpose to visit various tobacco plantations.-1897. Visiting the Krakatau group with Penzig (March 17), subsequent to a visit to P. Merak in Sunda Strait. In April of the same year a tour with the Curator of the Gardens to Singapore and P. Penang for a visit to the Botanic Gardens there.5-1898. With the Curator of the Gardens to Sumatra East Coast (10 days); via P. Penang to Ceylon, and returning to Buitenzorg by way of Singapore.

 

collections:

Herb. Bog. [BO], numbered in the H.B. series; from the plants (541 nos) collected on the tour to the Moluccas rough lists were published, and some species were described;6 dupl. in Herb. Leiden [L].

Hort. Bog.: living plants from the Moluccas7 and Sumatra.8

Herb. Kew [K]: 308 nos, Java and Japan (1891-97); probably Treub is not the collector, but presented duplicates of the Herb. Bog. in his function as Director of the Gardens. The same may hold true for the orchids sent to Ridley, then Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, before 1896.9 In 1886 he sent 85 species of cultivated plants from Buitenzorg to Herb. Bot. Gard. St Petersb. (= Leningrad [LE]).

His New Guinea plants were elaborated pr.p. in Nova Guinea vol. 8.

 

literature:

(1) On the periodicity of the flora of Java he wrote: ‘Quelques observations sur la vegetation de l’île de Java’ (Bull. Soc. Roy. Belg. 262, 1887, p. 182-185).

(2) M. Treub: ‘Notice sur la nouvelle flore de Krakatau’ (Ann. Jard. Bot. Buit. 7, 1888, p. 213-223); ‘Over bet nieuwe plantenkleed van Krakatau’ (Nat. Tijdschr. N.I. 48, 1889, p. 338-339).

(3) cf. Versl. Pl. Tuin Buitenzorg for 1893, p. 25-26.

(4) cf. l.c. for 1894, p. 81.

(5) cf. l.c. for 1897, p. 66-70.

(6) cf. l.c. for 1893, p. 27-31.

H. Hallier in ‘Neue and bemerkenswerte Pflanzen aus dem Malaiisch-Papuanischen Inselmeer’ I-III (Ann. Jard. Bot. Buit. 13, 1896, p. 276-327, pl. 21-30; Bull. Herb. Boiss. 6, 1898, p. 212-220, 284-288, 348-360, 604-622, pl. 5-11; l.c. sér. 2, vol. 1, I901, p. 667-676, pl. 9-12).

(7) cf. Versl. Pl. Tuin Buitenzorg for 1893, list on p. 66-70.

(8) cf. list in l.c. for 1894, p. 58.

(9) cf. Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 32, 1896, p. 219.

 

biographical data:

Teysmannia 9, 1899, p. 481-499; Eigen Haard 1903, fast. 16, 17 and 18; Wittrock, Icon. Bot. Berg., 2, 1905, p. 173, t. 98; Portr. in Jaarb. Dept. Landb. N.I. for 1909, 1910; Ber. D.B.G. 28, 1910, Gen. Vers. Heft p. (21); Rev. gen. d. Sci. pores et appl. Paris 1910, p. 882; Kew Bull. 1910, p. 349-350; Gard. Chron. 3rd ser. 48, 1910, p. 336 w. portr.; Nature 84, 1910, p. 539-540: Versl. Kon. Akad. Wet. Amsterdam 1910, p. 484-487; Ind. Mercuur Oct. 1910; Ann. Jard. Bot. Buit. suppl. 3, 1910, préface, and l.c. 24, 1911, p. i-xxxii, incl. bibliogr.; Tijdschr. K.N.A.G. 1911, p. 165, 873, 965; Levensber. Mij Ned. Letterk. 1911/12, 25 pp.; Bull. Soc. Bot. Roy. Belg. 48, 1911, p. 285-325 (extr. Ann. Jard. Bot. Buit. 1911 l.c.); in Beilage ‘Nekrologe’ z.d. Verb. d. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. Solothurn 1911; Rev. gén. d. Sci. Paris 1935, copied in De Kern 62, 1936, p. 151-154; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; Encyclop. N.I. 4, 1921; Ned. Kruidk. Arch. 49, 1939, p. 449; l.c. 50, 1940, p. 202; l.c. 51, 1941, p. 372-373; G.H. Zeijlstra: ‘Melchior Treub. Pioneer of a New Era in the History of the Malay Archipelago’ (Amsterdam 1959); in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, New York (ined.).