PAUL, a celebrated botanist, was born at Halle in Saxony, and practised physic in the island of Ceylon, and the Cape of Good Hope, after which (in 1679) he was chosen professor of botany at Leyden, and superintendent of the botanical garden, in which science he obtained the highest reputation, and died in the year 1695. His first publication, in 1687, was a catalogue of plants in the garden of the university,—a garden which, in seven years he had so much enriched with plants from the East and West Indies, that it nearly rivalled the very first in Europe. His method of botanical classification is contained in his Flore Lugduno-Batavae Flores, published in 1692. His Paradisus Batavus, &c. was published after his decease, by William Sherard, which contains many rare, and some entirely new species, delineated in a very elegant manner. The rest of Hermann's works are, Musæi Indici Catalogus, continens varia exotica animalia, insecta, vegetabilia, mineralia; Lapis Lydus Materie Medicae, in which last his new characters of plants are made use of to illustrate their medical properties. At his death he left behind him 450 fine drawings, and a numerous collection of dried plants, which served for the basis of the Flora Ceylanica of Linnaeus, and also a catalogue of plants of the Cape of Good Hope. Dr Hannes addressed to him a beautiful Latin ode, which is still preserved; but many of the treasures of his industrious life were strangely neglected, and allowed to be dispersed.