Book Reviews of publications related to botanical work in the Netherlands

The book starts with a biography of von Haller in Dutch (p. 1-18). Professor Lindeboom here devotes special attention to the relations between Haller and Boerhaave, as the former came to Holland to continue his studies with the Leyden coryphaeus. The second part (p. 19-106) is the diary which Haller kept during his stay in Holland. This is written in German, and mainly based on the publications of the complete diary, edited by Hirzel (1883) and Hintzsche (1948). It gives numerous remarkable and interesting observations with regard to the life at the famous university and in the town, and of his contact with the professors, especially with Albinus and Boerhaave. He also visited Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Haarlem and other places. During his stay in Holland he visited a number of gardens of which the garden “Tulpenburg” at Ouderkerk a.d. Amstel especially impressed him. The botanical garden at Leyden was in his opinion the richest in the world, containing ca. 6000 species. His studies in this “Hortus Medicus” and the lectures by Boerhaave in that garden laid the foundations of his later botanical work in Gottingen and in Switzerland.