Rumphius’ Orchids: Orchid Texts from "The Ambonese Herbal" - Hardcover

"Books like this are not written any more because people with Rumphius' knowledge and writing skills do not exist any more. He paints a picture of the world he lived in, a picture no one else has provided and of great historical and ethnobotanical interest." Henk van der Werff, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri "A book filled with interesting titbits of information that hold the reader's attention. Enlightening and original." Wesley E. Higgins, Director of Systematics, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida

Rumphius (1627-1702), founder of Indonesian botanical exploration and one of the greatest naturalists of the seventeenth century, was the first to describe tropical orchids in a Western language. Within the pages of his monumental seven-volume Ambonese Herbal, written in Dutch, he included descriptions of thirty-six species of orchids found on the island of Ambon in eastern Indonesia, plus twelve uncertified ones. His detailed descriptions reflect both the accuracy of a scientist and the sensibility of a poet. This lovely book is the first to gather and translate into English all the sections of Rumphius' The Ambonese Herbal devoted to orchids. For each entry, Rumphius describes the plant, names it according to a pre-Linnaean system of nomenclature, gives its locality, and details its medicinal and non-medicinal uses. More than twenty beautiful line drawings accompany the entries. The volume includes ample notes to illuminate the text and an informative introduction that tells the life of Rumphius-a remarkable collector/naturalist who overcame fire, shipwreck, and blindness to produce his masterwork.