David van, Royen (Sander, 1783

Thijsse, G., Mabberley, D. J. & Baas, P., 2023, Exploring the Leiden ‘ Van Royen herbarium’: History and scientific significance of the herbarium specimens of Adriaan (1704 - 1779) and David van Royen (1727 - 1799), Blumea 68 (2), pp. 85-138 : 97-99

David van Royen’s European correspondents

Austria

– Nicolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817) (11 specimens) — He sent a parcel of dried plants to David van Royen. On the sheet of Valeriana celtica L. (L 0100990; Caprifoliaceae ) the original cut-out address has been pasted. David is mentioned as ‘Universitatis patriae rectori’. Since David held the position of rector only once, in 1763/1764, Jacquin must have sent him these plants in that time. In 1763, Jacquin was professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia). 20 One letter of D. van Royen (19 January 1762 or 1764) to Von Jacquin is in the Waller Manuscript Collection, Uppsala University Library (Ms benl-00595). Other letters are in the Naturhistorischen Museum, Wien and in the Österreichische Nazionalbiblio- thek ( Ladurner 2016).

Denmark / Norway

– Martin Vahl (1749–1804) (two specimens) — Danish- Norwegian botanist who travelled in Europe 1783–1785 (Stafleu & Cowan 1986, Vol. 6: 629).

England

– Joseph Banks (1743–1820) (ten fern specimens) — The explorer and botanist Banks met David van Royen in Leiden in 1773 ( Schilling 2015: 114).

– John Ellis (1710?–1776) (two specimens) — Irish-born merchant in London, agent for West Florida 1764, for Domi- nica 1770. Ellis imported many American seeds (Stafleu & Cowan 2000, Suppl. VI: 313) .

– Philip Miller (four specimens) — Corresponded also with A. van Royen (see the correspondents of A. van Royen ).

– Humphry Waldo Sibthorp (1713–1797) (one specimen) — Sherardian professor of botany at Oxford (Stafleu & Cowan 1985, Vol. 5: 577). Letters of H.W. Sibthorp to D. van Royen are in the Leiden University library (Special collections BPL 1886 and BPL 1900 ) .

France

– Louis-Guillaume LeMonnier (1717–1799) (11 specimens) — Professor at the Jardin du Roi, Paris (1758–1786) (Stafleu & Cowan 1979, Vol. 2: 842).

19 The majority of the Burman specimens encountered in the general herbarium of the Rijksherbarium are duplicates from the Burman herbarium and were never part of the ‘ Van Royen herbarium’.The often scrappy specimens in general lack their original labels; the only information provided on the sheet was written by C.L. Blume. Such specimens are included in the general historical herbarium collection of Naturalis.

After the death of Burman’s son, Nicolaas Laurens,Nicolaas’s herbarium, including the specimens of his father (c. 29 000), was sold to the banker and naturalist Benjamin Delessert (1773–1844). It appears that when Blume visited Paris in 1830 ( Den Ouden 1979: 133), he was given permission by Delessert to select duplicates for the Rijksherbarium. On that occasion, Blume seems to have taken an unknown number of specimens from Burman’s herbarium, including specimens from Houttuyn. When Lasègue (1845: 347) wrote that part of Burman’s herbarium was in the Leiden Rijksherbarium, he was probably referring to these duplicates. Moreover, it is known that Delessert was prepared to exchange plants with the Leiden Academy herbarium ( Karstens 1983: 9).

20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_Academy_(Bansk%C3%A1_%- C5%A0tiavnica).

– Jacob Reinbold Spielmann (1722–1783) (31 specimens) — Professor of botany and medicine in Strasbourg (Fries 1909: 252).

Germany

– Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748–1804) (eight specimens) — Professor of medicine and chemistry in Tübingen, later in Göttingen ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976, Vol. 1: 955). Gmelin matriculated at Leiden University in 1769 ( Du Rieu 1875: 1097). Author of Enumeratio stirpium agro Tubingensi indigenarum ( Gmelin 1772).

– Lorenz Heister — After Adriaan van Royen had resigned as professor of botany, David continued the correspondence with Heister. 21

Italy

– Carlo Allioni (1728–1804) (nine specimens) — Professor of botany at the medical faculty of the Turin Athenaeum (Stafleu & Cowan 1992, Suppl. I: 76). Correspondent of David van Royen ( Luciano 2013: 420) .

– Gabriele Brunelli (1728–1797) (two specimens) — Professor of botany, head of the Bologna botanical garden.

– Vitaliano Donati (1717–1762) (two specimens) — Venetian biologist and apothecary ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976, Vol. 1: 670) in Turin.

– Giovanni Marsili (1727–1794) (eight specimens) — Professor of botany and curator of the Padua botanical garden (Stafleu & Cowan 1981, Vol. 3: 311). He visited David van Royen in Leiden, probably in 1758 .22

– Giuseppe Monti (1682–1760) (three specimens) — See A. van Royen’s correspondents. After Adriaan van Royen had resigned as professor of botany, David continued the correspondence with Monti.

– Angelo Attilio Tilli (1710–1781) (two specimens) — Professor of botany in Pisa.

Spain

– Casimiro Gómez-de Ortega (1740–1818) (12 specimens) — Director of the botanical garden in Madrid (Stafleu & Cowan 1981, Vol. 3: 847). Four letters by D. van Royen to C. Gómez-de Ortega, written in 1784–1787, are in the Real Jardin Botanico in Madrid (Sign. AJB, Div. I, 20, 5, 29; Sign. AJB, Div. I, 20, 5, 30; Sign. AJB, Div. I, 20, 5, 31; AJB, Div. I, 20, 5, 32) .

Sweden

– Peter Jonas Bergius (1730–1790) (50 specimens) — Professor of natural history and medicine at the collegium medicum in Stockholm ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976, Vol. 1: 190) .

– Engelbert Gother (1708–1775) (81 specimens) — Stockholm ‘handelsborgmästare’ (‘mayor of commerce’) and one of the directors of the Rörstrand porcelain factory (Fries 1908: 243). In 1764 he sent an unknown number of Swedish plants to David van Royen. See Fontinalis antipyretica Hedw. (L 0423523) ‘Inventa a Engelb: Gothero Upsaliae, qui Eam Ao 1764 Davidi van Royen in Hollandiam misit una cum aliis plantis Suesicis’. 23

– Eric Gustaf Lidbeck (1724–1803) (one specimen) — See Adriaan van Royen’s Swedish correspondents. Five letters by D. van Royen are in Lidbeck’s correspondence.

Switzerland

– Horace-Benedict de Saussure (1740–1799) (three specimens) — Naturalist and professor of philosophy in Geneva .

21 https://www.bavarikon.de/search?lang=de&terms=royen (last accessed 12 October 2022).

22 Letter D. van Royen (3 March 1761) to Linnaeus (Linnaean correspondence L2891). Album amicorum J. le Francq van Berkheij. Vol. 1, fol. 8 r (National Library of The Netherlands, The Hague, KW 132 F 13/1).

23 Letter D. van Royen (1 March 1767) to Linnaeus (Linnaean correspondence L3884).

Travelled in France, The Netherlands, England, Sicily and the Alps (Stafleu & Cowan 1985, Vol. 5: 70).

– Johann Jakob Dick (1742–1775) (c. 20 specimens) — Clergyman and amateur botanist. Pupil of Von Haller and tutor of Von Haller’s daughter. He collected specimens for him when Von Haller was writing his Enumeratio Methodica Stirpium Helvetiae Indigenarum ( Von Haller 1742). Dick’s herbarium was bought by Banks in 1775 and is now at BM ( De Beer 1955: 325, 1958: 143). Letters of Dick to D. van Royen are in the Leiden University Library (Special collections BPL 1900).

– (Johann Georg) Locher (1739–1787) (four specimens) — First director of the botanical garden in Wiedikon (Zürich). He studied in Leiden under Adriaan and David van Royen and graduated in 1761 ( Rudio 1896: 207–208). A shipment of seeds from the botanical garden in Zurich which had been received from Berbice ( Guyana) from one Werndli was sent to David van Royen ( Rudio 1896: 201) .

The Netherlands

– Johannes Burman and N.L. Burman — In 1769, N.L. Burman became his father’s assistant and he succeeded him in 1777. Specimens with labels stating that they originated from the Amsterdam Hortus, most probably ended up in the ‘ Van Royen herbarium’ via Burman father and son.

– David de Gorter (nine specimens) — Son of Johannes de Gorter. Author of Flora Ingrica ( De Gorter 1761) . In 1754 he went with his father to Russia to become the personal physician of Empress Elisabeth of Russia. He returned to The Netherlands in 1761 (Bouman 1847, Vol. 2: 240). In 1763 he went to Russia again, to return in 1764 (Bouman 1847, Vol. 2: 240). 24 Of the specimens recorded in the Naturalis database all but one bear the annotation ‘D. de Gorter 1765’, the year in which he gave a number of Russian plants to David van Royen.

Not long after De Gorter’s first arrival in Russia, Johann Jakob Lerche (1703–1780) gave him a collection of dried plants ( De Gorter 1782: 206–207). Lerche was an army physician and botanist at St. Petersburg and travelled in Astrakhan where he collected many native plants. In a letter to Linnaeus (St. Petersburg, 16 July 1761) De Gorter wrote that he had saved the specimens Gerber had collected along the rivers Volga and Don and all specimens that Lerche had collected in Astrakhania ( Russia) and provinces close to the Caspian Sea. 25 In 1762 De Gorter received a parcel containing dried plants from Astrakhania. This parcel included more than 20 species of ‘ Kali’. 26

– Hieronymus David Gaubius (1705–1780) (one specimen) — Leiden professor of medicine and chemistry.

– Johannes Frederik Gronovius and L.T. Gronovius — See Gronovius in correspondents of A. van Royen.

– Martinus Houttuyn (two specimens) — Author of Natuurlyke historie of uitvoerige beschryving der dieren, planten, en mineraalen ( Houttuyn 1761 –1785), based largely on the principles of the 12th edition of Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (1766–1768). One letter of Houttuyn (23 December? 1773) to D. van Royen is in the Waller Manuscript Collection , Uppsala University Library (Ms benl-00410) .

– David Meese (1723–1770) (one specimen) — Gardener at the botanical garden of the University in Franeker (province of Friesland) (Stafleu & Cowan 1981, Vol. 3: 399) and author of Flora Frisica ( Meese 1760) .

24 Letter N. Burman (23 October 1762) to Linnaeus (Linnaean correspondence L3139).

25 Letter D. de Gorter (16 July 1761) to Linnaeus (Linnaean correspondence L2933).

26 Letter D. de Gorter (Wijk bij Duurstede, 10 March 1762) to Linnaeus (Linnaean correspondence L3049).

– Eduard Sandifort (1742–1814) (four specimens) — Sandifort received his doctorate from Leiden University in 1763 and worked as a general practitioner in The Hague. In 1771, he became professor of anatomy and surgery at Leiden University. He gave D. van Royen some seaweed specimens that were probably collected by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811) who graduated in Leiden in 1759. Sandifort travelled in The Netherlands and to London but settled in The Hague. In 1767 he was invited by Catherine II of Russia to become professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences ( Wendland 1992: 62). His son Gerard was acting director of the Leiden botanical garden from 1819 to 1823 .

– Martin Wilhem Schwencke (1707–1785) — Professor of botany in The Hague and owner of a private botanical garden ( Thijsse 2021). Where labels indicate that the origin is a garden in The Hague, then this must have been Schwencke’s garden. After Schwencke’s death the rare plants growing in his garden were auctioned. 27 Some plants were bought for the Leiden botanical garden.

– Hendrik Twent (1743–1788) (one specimen) — Son-in-law of Gaubius and mayor of Leiden.

– Steven Jan van Geuns and Matthias van Geuns. (c. 40 specimens) — Utrecht professors of botany .

– Murk van Phelsum (1730–1799) (10 specimens) — Studied in Harderwijk. After his PhD he became a physician in Bolsward, from 1764 in Sneek. His own collection, comprising nine book herbaria is held at the University Museum in Groningen .