t 
292 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Furthermore, the substitution of the 1686 title for that of 1678 
(beside the absurdity of repeating the contents: * De varii generis 
Arboribus et Frutieibus Siliquosis " in. place of ** De Arboribus ") is 
a slight upon the first editor, whose name appears only on the original 
title-page of Pars i.: **Notis adauxit, & commentariis illustravit 
Arnoldus Syen "—though he is eulogized by his successor Jan. Com- 
melin, in the preface to the second volume. Arnoldus Syen (1640— 
1678) was professor of medicine and botany at Leyden, but appears 
to have left little else in the way of botanical work save one short 
paper * De Herba Fumana" in Acta MHafuiensia, ii. 108—105 
(1675). His premature death occurred in the very year of the issue 
of the first volume of the Hortus Malabaricus, which might well be 
his chief memorial. Just how much eredit is due to each of the 
editors and collaborators cannot be ascertained, but besides information 
given in the various prefaces-of the work itself, there are considerable 
aecounts of it in Phil. "Trans. Roy. Soc. London, xiii. 100—109 
(Mar. 10, 1682/3) ; Aeta Eruditorum, 1648, 159—164 (Apr. 1684); 
and by Bertueh in Fortsetz. Allg. Teut. Gart. Mag. iii. 23-26 (1818), 
written as an introduetion to Dennstedt's ScA/lüssel zum Hortus 
AMalabaricus. 
Bertueh indeed raises the question of earlier dates for certain 
volumes, eiting the preface, dated December 1696, of Caspar Com- 
melin's Fora Malabarica: ** Prodierunt ante aliquot annos duodecim 
vasti istius operis Horti Malabarici titulo insigniti tomi." | Commelin, 
moreover, definitely refers to every plate in all twelve volumes of the 
Hortus Malabaricus, although according to its imprint Pars xii, 
was not published until 1703. While it has been impossible to find 
any notice of issue, or locate any eopy of earlier date, one may infer 
that inasmuch as Pars xi. was issued in 1692, the material for the 
remaining volume was all ready and even in print for some time 
previous to the issue of the title-page. Again, Haller ( Bibl. Bot. i. 
588, 1771) gives 1676 as date of the first volume, which is not 
followed by other bibliographers except Sprengel (Hist. Rei Herb. ii. 
83, 1808) ; nevertheless the prefaces to this volume, which are all 
dated April 20, 1675, offer a reasonable presumption that printing 
must have begun long before 1678. With such evidences of diversity 
as have been presented, it seems not unlikely that copies or notices of 
publieation may be in existenee which would support these intima- 
tions of earlier dates, and it would be most helpful if anyone having 
such information would make it public. 
. Manzonurg F. WARNER, 
Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 
