THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY

Furthermore, the substitution of the 1686 title for that of 1678 (beside the absurdity of repeating the contents: “On various kinds of Trees and Pod-bearing Shrubs” original: "De varii generis Arboribus et Fruticibus Siliquosis" in place of “On Trees” original: "De Arboribus") is a slight upon the first editor, whose name appears only on the original title-page of Part 1: “Arnoldus Syen increased it with notes and illustrated it with commentaries” original: "Notis adauxit, & commentariis illustravit Arnoldus Syen" — though he is eulogized by his successor Jan Commelin, in the preface to the second volume. Arnoldus Syen (1640–1678) was professor of medicine and botany at Leyden, but appears to have left little else in the way of botanical work save one short paper “On the Fumana Herb” original: "De Herba Fumana" in Hafnian Transactions The "Acta Hafniensia" was the scientific journal of Copenhagen., iii. 103–105 (1675). His premature death occurred in the very year of the issue of the first volume of the Hortus Malabaricus The "Garden of Malabar," a massive 12-volume work on Indian flora., which might well be his chief memorial. Just how much credit is due to each of the editors and collaborators cannot be ascertained, but besides information given in the various prefaces of the work itself, there are considerable accounts of it in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, xiii. 100–109 (Mar. 10, 1682/3); Acts of the Erudite original: "Acta Eruditorum," the first scientific journal of German-speaking lands., 1684, 159–164 (Apr. 1684); and by Bertuch in Continuation of the General German Garden Magazine original: "Fortsetz. Allg. Teut. Gart. Mag." iii. 23–26 (1818), written as an introduction to Dennstedt’s Key to the Hortus Malabaricus.

Bertuch indeed raises the question of earlier dates for certain volumes, citing the preface, dated December 1696, of Caspar Commelin’s Flora Malabarica: “Twelve volumes of that vast work distinguished by the title Garden of Malabar appeared some years ago.” original: "Prodierunt ante aliquot annos duodecim vasti istius operis Horti Malabarici titulo insigniti tomi." Commelin, moreover, definitely refers to every plate in all twelve volumes of the Hortus Malabaricus, although according to its imprint Part 12 was not published until 1703. While it has been impossible to find any notice of issue, or locate any copy of earlier date, one may infer that inasmuch as Part 11 was issued in 1692, the material for the remaining volume was all ready and even in print for some time previous to the issue of the title-page. Again, Haller (Botanical Library original: "Bibl. Bot." i. 588, 1771) gives 1676 as date of the first volume, which is not followed by other bibliographers except Sprengel (History of the Herbal Kingdom original: "Hist. Rei Herb." ii. 83, 1808); nevertheless the prefaces to this volume, which are all dated April 20, 1675, offer a reasonable presumption that printing must have begun long before 1678. With such evidences of diversity as have been presented, it seems unlikely that copies or notices of publication may be in existence which would support these intimations of earlier dates, and it would be most helpful if anyone having such information would make it public.