Hortus Cliffortianus
Encyclopedia
The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus and Georg Dionysius Ehret
Georg Dionysius Ehret
Georg Dionysius Ehret was a botanist and entomologist, and is best known for his botanical illustrations.Ehret was born in Germany to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, a gardener and competent draughtsman, and Anna Maria Ehret. Beginning his working life as a gardener's apprentice near Heidelberg, he...
, financed by George Clifford
George Clifford III
George Clifford III was a wealthy Dutch banker and one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. He is known for his keen interest in plants and gardens...
in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
banker was a keen botanist with a large herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
and governor of the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
. He had the income to attract the talents of botanists such as Linnaeus and artists like Ehret. Together at the Clifford summer estate Hartecamp, which was located south of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
in Heemstede
Heemstede
Heemstede is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-History :Heemstede formed around the Castle Heemstede that was built on the Spaarne River around 1286. Before 1296, Floris V, Count of Holland, granted Heemstede as a fiefdom to Reinier of Holy...
near Bennebroek
Bennebroek
Bennebroek is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland, now part of Bloemendaal municipality. Before its merger, it was the smallest municipality in the Netherlands, covering an area of only 1.75 km².-History:...
, they produced the first scholarly classification of an English garden. The garden at Hartekamp was already quite famous before George Clifford bought the place in 1709. Under his ownership, the number of unusual plants grew exponentially. He had 4 hothouses built to house the many tropical plants that he collected through his business connections from all over the world. He was an important friend and seed supplier for botanist Herman Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch botanist, humanist and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. His main achievement was to demonstrate the relation of symptoms to lesions...
, whose summer home (and garden) at Oud Poelgeest
Oud Poelgeest
Oud Poelgeest is castle in Oegstgeest, north of Leiden, that was the former home of the Dutch scientist Herman Boerhaave . He was a Dutch humanist and physician of European fame.-History:...
was just a short trip away by trekschuit
Trekschuit
Trekschuit, literal translation 'tugboat', is an old style of horse-drawn boat specific to the Netherlands where it was used for centuries as a means of passenger traffic between cities along trekvaarten, or tow-canals.-History:...
along the Haarlem-Leiden canal known as the Leidsevaart
Leidsevaart
The Leidsevaart is a canal between the cities of Haarlem and Leiden in the Netherlands. It was dug in 1657, making it one of the oldest canals in the Netherlands. It was the major means of transport between Leiden and Haarlem for almost two centuries until the rail connection was established in...
.
In 1736 George Clifford became famous for growing the first indoor banana tree, and for this reason Linnaeus was eager to work with him.
George Clifford died in 1760 and left the business and property to his sons. The banking house of Clifford under George Clifford Jr. fell in 1772 and the estate Hartekamp went out of the family in 1788. Since then the garden has declined and is currently used as a school campus. After the fall of Clifford & Zn., Clifford's herbarium was acquired by Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
in 1791 who passed it on to the British Museum of Natural History, where it is published online.