Burman, John

, father of the preceding, once a pupil of Boerhaave, and professor of botany at Amsterdam, employed much labour and expence in editing various botanical works, particularly those giving accounts of plants procured from the Indies. In 1736 he published an edition of Weinman’s Herbal, to Which he added several plates with African plants. His next publication, in which he had the assistance of Linnæus, then a young man, was the “Thesaurus Zeylanicus, exhibens Plantas in Insula Zeylana nascentes, Iconibus illustratus,” 4to, 1737, taken from, various travellers, with new descriptions and plates. The following year he was appointed professor to the botanical garden at Amsterdam, and soon after published “Rariarum Africanarum Plantarum Decades Decem,” 4to, principally from Witsen and Vanderstell, to which, however, hemadeseveral additions. He translated Rumphius’s great work into Latin, which he enriched with valuable notes, and published under the title of “Everhardi Rumphii Herbarium Amboinense, continens plantas in ea, et adjacentibus Insulis repertas.” His last labour was procuring engravings to be executed from the drawings of American plants left by Plumier, to which he added descriptions, with the modern and former names. He died at a very advanced age in 1779. It must not be forgot that he was one of the earliest and kindest patrons of Linnæus, and when the latter, who had been introduced to him by Boerhaave, pleaded his poverty as an excuse why he could not remain at Amsterdam, Dr. Burman boarded and lodged him at his house for a considerable time, free of all expence. He was not always so liberal, or even courteous | to strangers of eminence, according to the account of Dr. Smith in his Tour, p. 29. ¹