Collections

Literature

 

Stathouder

 

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

 

Information and collections:

Lecomte in his annual report (Rapp. ann. sur le fonctionnement du Serv. Bot. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 1909, 1910, p. iv) mentions a Herbarium Stathouder from Java, which is kept separately in the Herb. Paris [P].

During my recent visit, both the herbarium and concerning list, letters and other documents were consulted.1 A list of the Herb. Stathouder was prepared by A.L. de Jussieu, with the heading: ‘Catalogue des plantes d’un herbier de l’isle de Ceylan, inscrit avec les noms des pays, faisant partie de la collection Stathoudérienne, envoyée de la Hollande au Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle’. From this list and the given vernacular names, it is evident that these plants were not collected in Java, and that Lecomte’s statement (see above) was incorrect.

This herbarium2 formed part of the ‘Collection Stathoudérienne’, the private natural history cabinet of the Dutch ‘Stathouder’ (stadtholder), which was, during the French occupation of Holland in 1795, sent as official war-booty to Paris. The extremely valuable zoological collections were brought back in 1815,3 but the botanical part, which was of little importance, evidently was not claimed.

Though the Herb. Stathouder does not seem to include any Malaysian specimens, a list in the ‘Archives Nationales’ at Paris, includes ‘seeds from Batavia (Java)’, and medicinal plants, resins, wood samples, etc. of which no country of origin is mentioned. Some of these might still be at Paris [P].

 

literature:

(1) MS. list of A.L. de Jussieu in Libr. Nat. Hist. Mus. Paris, and Herb. (Phanér.) Paris. Other lists, letters and documents concerning this collection in Arch. Nationales, Paris (AJ15 836).

(2) Further particulars in Bull. Bot. Gard. Buitenzorg 18, 1950, p. 468-470.

(3) For particulars on the zoological part cf. A. Gijzen, ‘s Rijks Museum v. Nat. Hist. 1820-1915, Rotterdam 1938, p. 23-28; and H. Engel, Alphabetical list of Dutch zoological cabinets etc. (Bijdr. t. d. Dierk. 27, 1939) p. 300-302.