Early Ceylon Seed Lists. 
BY 
T. FETCH, B.A., B.Sc. 
^ I ^HE systematic study of Ceylon botany may be said to 
have been begun during the Dutch occupation, and the 
earhest work is based on the collections, of Paul Hermann, 
who was in Ceylon during 1672-79 and collected plants, 
chiefly in the neighbourhood of Colombo. The catalogue of 
Hermann’s collection was published after his death by W. 
Sherard, in 1717, under the title of “ Musæum Zeylanicum,” 
and his specimens subsequently came into the hands of 
Linnæus, who published a full description of them under the 
title of “ Flora Zeylanica.” 
Hermann is supposed to have also collected many fruits 
and seeds, which remained in the Leyden collection, and were 
not seen by Linnæus or included in his ‘‘ Flora Zeylanica.” 
Many of these were subsequently named and described by 
Gærtner in his ‘‘ De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum ” 
(1789-91), a work which consists of an extensive series of 
drawings of seeds and fruits from all the then-known parts of 
the world. 
It is possible, however, that the Leyden collection received 
additions in other ways. In the course of the exchange of 
seeds and plants between the different Dutch possessions, or 
in the exploitation of their natural resources, many seeds and 
fruits of possible economic value, or remarkable for their 
peculiar form, would reach Holland, and some of these would no 
doubt And their way into museums and botanical collections. 
Direct evidence of the exportation of collections of seeds 
from Ceylon to Holland is provided by two lists, now in the 
files of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, dated 1762 
and 1785, respectively. The first is a list of one hundred 
packets of medicinal seeds sent to the Chamber of Delft ; the 
second, a similar list of one hundred and fifty packets of 
medicinal seeds sent to the Botanic Garden at Leyden. The 
Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. VI., Part IV,, Dec., 1917. 
