Rumph, George Everard

, a doctor of physic in the university of Hanau, and a member of the academy of naturalists, was born at Hanau in 1637. He went to Amboyna, and became consul and senior merchant there, which did not prevent his employing his leisure moments in collecting the plants of that country; being so fond of botany as to acquire great skill in it without any instruction. Although he lost his sight at the age of forty-three, he could discover the nature and shape of a plant by his taste and feeling. He comprised all the plants which he had collected in the country where he settled, in twelve books, and dedicated them to the governor and council of the India company in 1690. They were not, however, printed then; but John Burman published them from 1740 to 1750, 7 vols. fol. which have commonly the date of 1751, under the title of “Herbarium Amboinense,” 1755. Burman has added an Auctuarium, with the table usually bound at the end of torn. VI. This work has some of the faults, or rather misfortunes, of a posthumous publication; and the reader must always keep in mind that the figures, far inferior to those of the “Hortus Malabaricus,” are generally not more than half the size of nature. The original drawings still in existence are said to be very fine. Rumph also left, “Imagines piscium testaceorum,” Leyden, 1711, foL reprinted 1739; the former is much valued for the plates. He wrote, besides, “The political History of Amboyna,” which has never been printed, but a copy is deposited in | the India company’s chest at Amsterdam, and another at Amboyna. ¹