Nicolaas Meerburgh was a Dutch gardener, botanist and botanical artist. He served as Hortulanus of the Leiden Botanical Garden under the directorship of Adriaan van Royen, David van Royen and Sebald Justinus Brugmans.

Apart from that he was born in Leiden, little is known of Meerburgh's early life. He was probably trained under the master gardener Adriaan Steckhoven (-1782). Meerburgh was appointed to his position at Leiden in 1771. Four years later he published the first part of his Afbeeldingen van zeldzame gewassen (Portraits of Rare Plants), containing hand coloured engravings by Meerburgh of the plants in the Leiden gardens. Four more volumes of this work were published in the next five years. He later produced Plantae rariores vivis coloribus depictae (1789), and Plantae selectarum icones pictae (1798).

Sources:
H.P. Fuchs, 1962, "Nicolaas Meerburgh und die drei von ihm verfassten Botanischen Tafelwerke", Acta Botanica Neerlandica, 11:69-89
R.F. Erickson, MBG Rare Books, Nicolaas Meerburgh 1734-1814:
http://www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/author.asp?creator=Meerburgh,%20Nicolaas&creatorID=4, accessed 20 December 2011.