Charles de L'Ecluse or Carolus Clusius (Arras, February 19, 1525 - Leiden April 4, 1609) was the Flemish doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th century scientific horticulturists. He established the first formal botanical garden of Europe at Leyden, the Hortus Academicus, in 1587; he was appointed professor at the University of Leiden in 1594. His detailed planting lists have made it possible to recreate his garden near where it originally lay.

In the history of gardening he is remembered not only for his scholarship but also for his observations on tulips "breaking" — a phenomenon discovered in the late 19th century to be due to a virus — causing the many different flamed and feathered varieties, which led to the speculative tulipomania of the 1630s. Clusius laid the foundations of Dutch tulip breeding and the bulb industry today.

His first publication was a French translation of Rembert Dodoens's herbal, published in Antwerp in 1557, which initiated his fruitful collaboration with the renowned Plantin printing press at Antwerp that permitted him to issue late-breaking discoveries in natural history and to ornament his texts with elaborate engravings. Clusius, as he was known to his contemporaries, published two major original works: his Rariorum plantarum historia (1601) is the first record for approximately 100 new species and his Exoticorum libri decem (1605) is an important work on exotic flora, both still often consulted. He also published other works, including one of the earliest known books on Spanish flora, Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Hispanias observatarum historia. Clusius translated several contemporary works in natural science.

External links

• Biography of Carolus Clusius (http://ub.leidenuniv.nl/bc/scaligerinstitute/clusius/biography.html)
• Botanical Garden of Leiden (http://www.leiden.edu/index.php3?c=143)