Adriaan van Royen

Adriaan van Royen (1704/1705- 1779) was a Dutch botanist. He was a professor at Leiden and is associated with Carl Linneaus. [Sandermann Olsen, Sven-Erik, (1997): Bibliographia Discipuli Linnæi, Bibliographies of the 331 Pupils of Linnæus, Kopenhagen]

Van Royen trained at the University of Leiden and graduated as a medical doctor in 1728 for his thesis "Dissertatio botanico-medica de anatome et œconomia plantarum". He was later appointed professor of botany at the university from 1732-1755 and later professor of medicine (1755-1775).

He is best known for his work on flora of Southeast Asia. He was a colleague of George Clifford, a wealthy English merchant and governor of the Dutch East India Company living in Harlem, and a noted source of new introductions from the East Indies and the Cape. Adriaan van Royen formed a close relationship with Linnaeus, who had visited the Leiden Botanic Garden during a stay in Leiden between 1737 and 1738.

The genus "Royena" L. (= "Diospyros" sect. "Royena" (L.) F.White), in the Ebenaceae, and "Melastoma royenii" Blume. Sutton, D.A. are named after him.

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