A contribution to the history of the herbaria of George Clifford III (1685–1760)

Abstract

The herbarium of the wealthy banker George Clifford III, who lived near Haarlem in the Netherlands, was studied by Linnaeus. It forms the basis for Hortus Cliffortianus (1738), one of the principal works on which his famous Species plantarum (1753) was founded. It is this close relationship between Clifford's herbarium and Hortus Cliffortianus together with the frequency with which Linnaeus cited species accounts from that work in the synonymy of accounts in Species plantarum which makes it highly important in the light of the typification of Linnaean plant names. It is well known that the main body of Clifford's herbarium is held at the Natural History Museum, London. Less well known is the existence of a much smaller collection now held at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden. Most of the plants in the London set are mounted with printed vases and ribbons, and have decorative labels. Similar ornaments also occur in the Leiden Clifford herbarium. The use of such ornaments was widespread in the Netherlands in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. In this paper the history of both Clifford herbaria is reconstructed and an attempt made to establish their exact connection by comparison of the handwriting on the labels and the presence of the different printed ornaments.