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HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION OF THE FLORA 



OF SURINAM. 



Although it appears from books of travel of colonists in Surinam in 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that the luxuriance of the flora 

 of Surinam greatly impressed all who visited the colony, yet no plants 

 were conveyed to Europe by the Dutch of those days. The first collections 

 that reached Europe seem to have been those of Dalberg and Rolander ; 

 the first a Swede who made important collections for Linnaeus, the second 

 a Dane who travelled in Surinam about 1754 and whose journey was 

 described by Hornemann in 1812. Probably it was Dalberg's collection 

 which served in 1775 as the base for a doctor dissertation by one of 

 Linnaeus' pupils, Jacobus Aim, the title being "Plantae Surinamenses quas 

 praeside D. D. Car. von Linne' proposuit Jacobus Aim Uplandus". ') In 

 the preface of this paper it is only stated that through the liberality of 

 Gustavus III Linnaeus succeeded in bringing together a sum of money for 

 the collection of natural objects in Surinam and tropical America. That 

 the collection was important may appear from the statement that a great 

 part of the flowers and fruit were preserved in alcohol. The dissertation 

 itself is not of much consequence ; 148 species are enumerated in it, of 

 which 40 to 50 new ones with 13 new genera, but only Gustavia augusta 

 is described and illustrated ; the other genera and species are only mentioned 

 with the addition of their vernacular names and were first described by 

 Linnaeus fil. in his Supplementum plantarum. This latter work is much more 

 important for the knowledge of the Surinamian flora and numerous well- 

 known species from tropical America were described by Linnaeus fil. by 

 means of specimens originating from Surinam. 



In 1 791 a small collection reached Europa, namely that of Anderson. 

 This latter, probably Englishman by birth, was originally a hospital surgeon 

 in American service and came to St. Vincent about 1780, where he was 

 superintendent of the botanical garden from 1785 till 1811, the year of his 

 death. With the view of making a flora of the Antilles he collected in the 



') Amoenitates Academicae, ed. Schreber (1785) VIII p 249. 



