Paul Hermann herbarium
Garcinia gummi-gutta
Hermann's dried plants and drawings from Sri Lanka were one of the first major collections of the botany of the East Indies.
Find a specimen
The specimens have been digitised and are accessible via the Data Portal.
Number of Specimens
1,675
Paul Hermann
Paul Hermann (1646-1695) was Medical Officer to the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka between 1672 and 1677.
During this time he collected many plants from the region, particularly the area around Colombo.
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) used the collection when writing Flora Zeylanica (1747) and, later, when assigning Sri Lankan taxa in Species Plantarum (1753). As a result, the collection contains many Linnaean type specimens.
The collection comprises five bound volumes containing:
- pressed plants
- a small number of pressed insects
- a volume of drawings
Curator
Dr Fred Rumsey
