The Hortus botanicus of

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

is the oldest

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located in the southwestern part of the historical centre of the city, between the Academy building and the old

Leiden Observatory Leiden Observatory ( nl, Sterrewacht Leiden) is an astronomical institute of Leiden University, in the Netherlands. Established in 1633 to house the quadrant of Rudolph Snellius, it is the oldest operating university observatory in the world, wit ...

building.

History

In 1587 the young

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

asked for permission from the mayor of Leiden to establish a ''hortus academicus'' behind the university building, for the benefit of the medical students. The request was granted in 1590, and the famous botanist

Carolus Clusius Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius (19 February 1526 – 4 April 1609), seigneur de Watènes, was an Artois doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists. Life Clu ...

(1526–1609) was appointed as

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

. Clusius arrived in Leiden in 1593. His knowledge, reputation, and international contacts allowed him to set up a very extensive

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

collection. Clusius also urged the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC) to collect plants and (dried) plant specimens in the colonies. The original garden set up by Clusius was small (about 35 by 40 meters), but contained more than 1000 different plants. The collecting of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

(from the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

) and

sub-tropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

(from the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

) plants was continued under Clusius' successors. Especially

Herman Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...

(1668–1738, prefect from 1709 to 1730), contributed greatly to the fame of the Hortus with his efforts to collect new plants and specimens, and with his publications, such as a catalog of the plants then to be found in the Hortus. Another major contribution to the collections was made by

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna and the introduction of Western medicine in Japan. He w ...

, a German physician who was employed on

Deshima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, it ...

( Japan) by the VOC from 1823 until his expulsion by Japan in 1829. During that period he collected many dried and living plants from all over Japan (as well as animals, ethnographical objects, maps, etc.), and sent them to Leiden. The first greenhouses appeared in the Hortus in the second half of the 17th century, the monumental

Orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

was built between 1740 and 1744. From its original plan the Hortus was expanded in 1736 by Adriaan van Royen and

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

, and in 1817 by Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck and

Sebald Justinus Brugmans Sebald Justinus Brugmans (24 March 1763, Franeker – 22 July 1819, Leiden) was a Dutch botanist and physician. He was the son of naturalist Anton Brugmans (1732-1789). Brugmans studied philosophy, mathematics and physics at the Universities ...

. In 1857, a part was used for building the new Leiden Observatory.

Collection

From a historical perspective, the old Tuliptree (''Liriodendron tulipifera'') from 1716, Date plum (''Diospyros lotus'') from 1739,

Ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus with ...

(''Ginkgo biloba'') from 1785 and

Golden Chain ''Laburnum'', sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are ''Laburnum anagyroides''—common laburnum and ''Laburnum alpinum''—al ...

(''Laburnum anagyroides'') from 1725 to 1818, are worth mentioning. The greenhouses with ''

Victoria amazonica ''Victoria amazonica'' is a species of flowering plant, the second largest of the water lily family Nymphaeaceae. It is the national flower of Guyana. Its native regions are Guyana and tropical South America. Description The ''Victoria amazoni ...

'' and other

plants, and the large collection of

plants in the recently renovated Orangery and the new Winter Garden draw many visitors. The park itself is an oasis inside the old city, with many more interesting plants and trees. A

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

in honour of Von Siebold opened in 1990. A reconstruction of Clusius' original garden, based on a plant list dating from the end of the 16th century, was opened in 2009. ErfgoedLeiden LEI001014795 Kas met Victoria Regia in de Hortus Botanicus

ErfgoedLeiden LEI001014795 Kas met Victoria Regia in de Hortus Botanicus

From a scientific point of view, the Leiden Hortus is known for its collections of Asian

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). A ...

(among which the Giant Arum '' Amorphophallus titanum''), '' Hoya'', '' Dischidia'', '' Nepenthes'',

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s and one of the biggest collections of Asian

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

in the world. File:ErfgoedLeiden LEI001014798 Kas in de Hortus Botanicus.jpeg, Greenhouse 1890-1900 File:ErfgoedLeiden LEI001014796 Kas met Victoria Regia in de Hortus Botanicus.jpeg, ''Victoria amazonica'' in bloom

References

* Karstens, WKH and Kleibrink, H (1982) ''De Leidse Hortus: een botanische erfenis''. Uitgeverij Waanders. * Schwartz, L (Ed.) (1990) ''Flora in Leiden: de verborgen tuinen van de stad''. SDU.

External links

Hortus botanicus Leiden web siteNationaal Herbarium Nederland web site
{{Authority control Botanical gardens in the Netherlands Tourist attractions in South Holland Leiden University Buildings and structures in Leiden 1590 establishments in the Dutch Republic Biology and natural history in the Dutch Republic