Past Exhibits: > Exotic Botany
Exotic Botany
Examples from three early floras highlighted the importance of Far Eastern botanical knowledge to science and history. Hortus Malabaricus was a product of the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century. Compiled by the Dutch governor of Malabar in South East India, the project illustrated and described methods of traditional healing of 742 plants.
The Ambonese Herbarium of Georg Rumph was a monumental document of the uses of plants in the East Indies of the 17th century.
Original watercolors by native artists at the Calcutta Botanical Garden, were used as models for hand-colored lithographs in Plantae Asiaticae Rariores, or Rare Plants of Asia published by the East India Company in London.
