Jan Commelin (23 April 1629 – 19 January 1692), also known as Jan Commelijn, Johannes Commelin or Johannes Commelinus, was a

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, and was the son of historian Isaac Commelin; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. Jan became a professor of botany when many plants were imported from the Cape and Ceylon and a new system had to be developed. As

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

of the city, together with

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen he led the arrangement of the new botanic garden Hortus Medicus, later becoming Hortus Botanicus. He cultivated exotic plants on his farm 'Zuyderhout' near Haarlem. Commelin amassed a fortune by selling herbs and drugs to apothecaries and hospitals in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities. Commelin did a great deal of the work in publishing ''Hortus malabaricus'' of Rheede, and ''Nederlandse Flora'' published in 1683 as well as contributing commentaries to the second and third volumes. He also prepared for publication "Horti Medici Amstelodamensis Rariorum" which appeared in 1697 and dealt mainly with plants from the

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

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, and was illustrated mainly by Jan Moninckx and his daughter Maria Moninckx. His nephew Caspar Commelin (1667-1734) became the director of the Amsterdam botanic garden after Peter Hotton left. Caspar finished the work of his uncle and had it published with the help of Frederik Ruysch. * In Maarssen there is a Commelinhof. * The genus '' Commelina'' is named after him.

Works

* ''Nederlantze Hesperides'' (1676) * ''Catalogus plantarum indigenarum Hollandiae'' (1683) * ''Horti medici Amstelodamensis rariorum...'' (1697-1701)

Sources

* Wilfrid Blunt: ''The Art of Botanical Illustration: An Illustrated History''. Dover Publications, 1994. * Gordon Douglas Rowley: ''A History of Succulent Plants''. Strawberry Press, 1997.
D.O. Wijnands (Herausgeber): ''The Botany of the Commelins''. Rotterdam, 1983.

References

1629 births 1692 deaths 17th-century Dutch botanists Pre-Linnaean botanists Scientists from Amsterdam {{Netherlands-botanist-stub