The history of plant-geographical investigation in the Netherlands

Abstract

Although the Leiden professor of botany, Vorstius (1633), the Amsterdam pharmacist and merchant, Commelin (1683), and Linnaeus’s friend de Gorter (1745,1767,1781a and 1781b) had made several attempts in the 17th and 18th century to compile a survey of the distribution of wild plants in the Netherlands, a thorough study did not begin until the 19th century. The ‘Flora Belgii septentrionalis’ (1825–1828) of van Hall was an interesting first step in this direction, but in 1845 botanical field studies received a special impetus through the foundation of the ‘Vereeniging voor de Nederlandsche Flora’ (Society for the Dutch Flora) (Wacahter, 1947; Smit, 1970 and Smit, 1971; Mennema, 1979a). Nevertheless, it was not until 1948 that the first instalment of the ‘Flora Neerlandica’ appeared; this was published in connection with the celebrations organised to mark the first centennial of the Netherlands Botanical Society, the new name given tot the society in 1867. This publication of 1948, however, had been preceded by the publication of a number of interim reports. These included the ‘Prodromus Florae Batavae’, published by the above-mentioned Society, the first edition of which appeared between 1850 and 1866, and the second, fuller edition between 1893 and 1916. Also worth mentioning are the ‘Flora van Nederland’ in 4 volumes by C.A.J.A. Oudemans (1859–1861; 2nd ed. 1871–1874), the ‘Zakflora’ by W.F. R.Suringar (1870), and the various publications on flora by H. Heukels (1883,1909-1911 ff).

The text of this chapter has been translated by Miss S. McNab. The authors are very grateful to Dr. W.D. Margadant for his critical reading of the text and some valuable suggestions.

The erratum of this chapter is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9191-0_9