PREFACE

During my journey undertaken to France, while staying in Amsterdam, he Referring to the Professor mentioned on the previous page kindly granted me access to his home and his most precious collections for several weeks. At that time, he observed my modest skill in Natural History The study of organisms, including botany and zoology and my burning desire for further knowledge in this most useful science. When I eventually expressed a wish to visit the Indian lands The East Indies, which until now have been little known, this same Professor recommended me to several high-ranking men in Amsterdam while I was spending the winter and following summer in Paris. He proposed that I might be permitted to sail to Japan in their name and at their expense—a land which is still largely unknown in terms of its natural products, and which closely approaches Belgium in its balance of cold and heat.

Chief among these patrons were Consul VRY TEMMINK, a Commissioner of the Amsterdam Medical Garden The Hortus Medicus, one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, Consul van der POLL, and Senators I. van der DEUTZ and David ten HOVEN. I was instructed to collect from the Japanese land—partly for the use of the Medical Garden and partly for the private use of these noblemen—living trees and shrubs as well as vegetable seeds in general. I was especially tasked with finding trees and shrubs that could acclimate to the European climate and be compelled to grow in the open air in their gardens Country Estates, which were already most abundantly adorned with every kind of tree that can be obtained from other lands and can endure the cold and the changes of the climate. However, in order that I might visit a land like Japan with success—a place which is closed to all other inhabitants of the terrestrial globe...