The botanist Jan Commelin was a specialist in exotic plants and helped to establish the botanical garden in Amsterdam (the Hortus Medicus) where such species were cultivated. These catalogues of the Hortus Medicus were prepared at the time when Merian would have been visiting the garden. Jan’s nephew Caspar Commelin (1668–1731) was one of the early curators of the botanical garden, and helped Merian by providing botanical information for the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.