Career

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Kleynhoff, Christiaan (sometimes cited as Kleinhoff, or Kleinhof)

 

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

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

 

Born: Sandau in Upper Silesia, Germany. Died: 1777, Culemborg, Gld, Holland.

 

career:

Surgeon, sailed for Batavia on Oct. 26, 1742, for three years employed in the West Indies, and since 1741 or 1742 in the service of the E.I. Company at Batavia; in 1762 he returned to Europe for good, settling in Holland. He owned a botanical garden at Batavia (possibly in Gang Chaulan), growing Malaysian and Chinese plants. In 1763 he settled at Culemborg, where he was appointed sheriff in 1764, and burgomaster in 1767.

The genus Kleinhovia L. and other plants were named in his honour.

From a concept letter of N.L. Burman3 it is evident that Kl. was busy arranging his notes on his plant collections for publication. B. expressed his hope that the vernacular names would be explained, and offered to have his drawings engraved at Amsterdam. Evidently the plan came to nothing.

 

collections:

He forwarded Java plants to N.J. Burman in the years 1757 and 1758. In Herb. Burman = Herb. Deless. (Geneva [G]);1 some in Herb. Linnaeus = Herb. Linn. Soc. Lond. [LINN]; and in Herb. Leiden [L], e.g. with Herb. Reinwardt.2

He discovered Porana volubilis N.L.Burm. and Strophanthus caudatus Kurz in Java.

 

literature:

(1) Some described in Burman: ‘Flora Indica’ (Lugd. Bat. 1768).

(2) cf. Grasses in W.H. de Vriese: ‘Plantae indiae batavae orientalis etc. (Lugd. Bat. 1856/57), p. 101-113.

(3) Dated May 2, 1768, MS in Un. Library Amsterdam, S48b, p. 28.

 

biographical data:

Greshoff, Nuttige Ind. Pl., 1894, p. 48; Bacekr, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936 (detailed data, cf. also sub Addenda); Boelman, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der geneeskruidcultuur in N.O.I., Leiden 1936, p. 46-47; specimen of handwriting in Sp. Savage, A catalogue of the Linnean Herbarium, London 1945, fig. 16; A. Ett. in Het Vade­land, July 13, 1957.