Willem Hendrik de Vriese

Willem Hendrik de Vriese (11 August 1806 – 23 January 1862) was a Dutch botanist and physician born in Oosterhout, North Brabant.

[1] In October 1857, he was commissioned to conduct botanical investigations in the Dutch East Indies, and consequently spent the following years performing research in Java, Borneo, Sumatra and the Moluccas.

Among de Vriese's written works was the first part of "Hortus Spaarne-Bergensis" (1839), a catalogue of banker Adriaan van der Hoop's exotic plant collection.

[3] He was the author of a memoir on Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen[4] as well as of noteworthy treatises on cinchona (1855), vanilla (1856) and camphor (1856).

[5] The botanical genus Vriesea (family Bromeliaceae) [6] was named in de Vriese's honor by British botanist John Lindley (1799–1865).