Tangible History. Begonia grandis Dryand., Hardy Begonia, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Well, well! Isn't it exciting! The very Begonia grandis Dryand. that Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) collected during his stay at Dejima, Nagasaki, in Japan 1775-1776, can still today be seen, touched, admired in his Herbarium preserved in Uppsala University, Sweden. Earlier it had been seen and drawn by another intrepid explorer and naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) during his Japanese sojourn 1690-1691. Both men traveled to Japan as surgeons in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company VOC. Our Begonia's first scientific description was by Jonas Carlsson Dryander (1748-1810) who worked first in Sweden but longer in England.
The name 'Begonia' was given this plant by Charles Plumier (1636-1704) in 1690 to honor his patron in the West-Indian Antilles, Michel Bégon (1638-1710) - also called 'Le Grand Bégon' -, who besides being the highest French administrative official there was also an untiring amateur naturalist.
Returning to that Herbarium: just think how hard it actually is to make a good dry herbarium specimen of Begonia with its fleshy, wet leaves and petals. And yet, after almost 250 years there it still is in Uppsala!
Tangible History. Begonia grandis Dryand., Hardy Begonia, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Well, well! Isn't it exciting! The very Begonia grandis Dryand. that Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) collected during his stay at Dejima, Nagasaki, in Japan 1775-1776, can still today be seen, touched, admired in his Herbarium preserved in Uppsala University, Sweden. Earlier it had been seen and drawn by another intrepid explorer and naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) during his Japanese sojourn 1690-1691. Both men traveled to Japan as surgeons in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company VOC. Our Begonia's first scientific description was by Jonas Carlsson Dryander (1748-1810) who worked first in Sweden but longer in England.
The name 'Begonia' was given this plant by Charles Plumier (1636-1704) in 1690 to honor his patron in the West-Indian Antilles, Michel Bégon (1638-1710) - also called 'Le Grand Bégon' -, who besides being the highest French administrative official there was also an untiring amateur naturalist.
Returning to that Herbarium: just think how hard it actually is to make a good dry herbarium specimen of Begonia with its fleshy, wet leaves and petals. And yet, after almost 250 years there it still is in Uppsala!