- Hendrik van Rheede
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draakenstein (1636 Utrecht -
Dec 15 1691 , off the coast ofBombay ) was a Dutch traveller and naturalist. He worked for theDutch East India Company to write the "Hortus Malabaricus " a compendium of the plants of economic value in the southIndia n Malabar region.This work was undertaken when Baron van Rheede was the Dutch Governor of
Cochin . Mentioned in these volumes are plants of theMalabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along theWestern Ghats fromGoa to Kanyakumari. The ethno-medical information presented in the work was extracted from palm leaf manuscripts by a famous practitioner of herbal medicine named Itty Achuden. The work took 30 years to compile and was edited by a team of nearly a hundred including physicians, professors of medicine and botany, amateur botanists (such as Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen,Paul Hermann ,Jan Moninckx ,Jan Commelin , Abraham Poot), Indian scholars and "vaidyas" (physicians) of Malabar and adjacent regions, and technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of company officials, clergymen (D. John Caesarius and Father Mathew of St. Joseph). He was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. [ [http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/nov252005/1672.pdf H.Y.Mohan Ram (2005) On the English edition of Van Rheede’s "Hortus Malabaricus" by K. S. Manilal(2003). Current Science, Bangalore, India 89(10)] ]His work was made use of by
Carolus Linnaeus .The Drakenstein region of South Africa was named after him because he visited it in 1685. In 1687 Governor Simon van der Stel opened this region to farmers. [ [http://www.tanap.net/content/activities/documents/resolutions_Cape_of_Good_Hope/introduction_english/39.htm Intro (English) to the Resolutions of Cape of Good Hope / Places named after members of the Council of Policy ] ]
References
External links
* http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/southasia/lach.html
* [http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20030930&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=57 Down to Earth]
* [http://www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl/detail.aspx?page=dafb&lang=en&id=1947 Drawing of "the funeral procession of Baron van Rheede atSurat " in January 1692]
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