Hermann, Paul

, a celebrated botanist, was born at Halle, in Saxony, towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Having resided some time in the East Indies, and especially at Ceylon, where he practised as a physician, he was induced to re-visit Europe in 1679, and filled the botanical professorship at Leyden, and at the same time having the care of the botanical garden, he soon more than doubled the number of plants which had been introduced by his predecessors during 150 years. He was the first in Holland who adopted a system of botany founded on the fructification, partly following the arrangement of Morison, and partly that of Ray. His works are remarkable for the excellence and neatness of his figures, | containing descriptions of many new plants found in various parts of the world. He died on the 29th of January, 1695. Linnæus, in his “Classes Plantarum,” has given a sketch of the Hennannian system, which is founded upon the fruit, to which he adhered with more pertinacity than either Ray or Morison themselves. The first work he published was a “Catalogue of the Leyden Garden,” in 1687, reprinted at Leyden in 1720, 8vo, under the title of “Index Piantarum quse in horto Leidensi aluntur,” to which Boerhaave added a history of the garden. To Hermann may be ascribed, on the authority of Sherard, the following work, “Florae Lugdunobatavrc flores,” though publislied under the name of Zumbach. In 1695, a work, entitled “Flora Lugdunobatava,” was begun to be printed, but after a few sheets were taken oft, its author’s death put a stop to any further continuation of it. At this time the “Paradisus Batavus” was in a state of forwardness, and it was published in 8vo, as a posthumous work, about three years afterwards. It was, however, reprinted in quarto in 1705, having been edited by William Sherard, at the expence of Hermann’s widow. This indefatigable man left a considerable number of papers and dried plants, the latter of which came into the possession of J. Burmann; and formed the corner-stone of his “Thesaurus Zeylanicus,” published at Amsterdam in 1737. These same plants came afterwards into tha hands of Linnæus for a time, and from them his “Flora Zeylanica” was composed. They are now finally the property of sir Joseph Banks. Besides the above books, he was the author of the foliowing works “Mussei Indici catalogus, continens varia exotica animalia, insecta, vegetabilia, mineralia, quse collegerat,1711, 8vo; “Lapis Lydius Materiae Medicae,1704, 8vo “Musaeum Zeylanicum” (unfinished) “Catalogus Plantarum Capitis Bonse Spei” (unedited) and wrote various botanical and medical tracts, which are of less moment, and some of which are superseded by the former. 1

1

Moreri. —Haller Bibl. Bot. Stoever’s Life of Linnæus, p. 164. Bat iri^ —Rees’s Cyclopædia.