Louisa Bolus

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Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus
Port Elizabeth
Alma materSouth African College (B.A.)
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society of South Africa
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
InstitutionsBolus Herbarium
Author abbrev. (botany)Kensit
L.Bolus

Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus

née Kensit (31 July 1877, Burgersdorp – 5 April 1970, Cape Town) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, and the longtime curator of the Bolus Herbarium, from 1903. Bolus also has the legacy of authoring more land plant species than any other female scientist, in total naming 1,494 species.[1]

Early life and education

Bolus was born in

Port Elizabeth, earned a teaching credential in 1899, and was awarded a BA degree in literature and philosophy by the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1902.[3][4]

Career

She worked as an assistant to her great-aunt Sophia's husband

Linnean Society, and the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science.[2][3] She was appointed curator of the Bolus Herbarium in 1903, and retired from that position in 1955.[5] She hired botanical artist Louise Guthrie as a staff member at the herbarium.[6]

Her first book, Elementary Lessons in Systematic Botany, was published in 1919.[2] This was followed by two volumes of books on South African flowers.[7][8] Louisa contributed to a number of botanical journals throughout her life, and edited the Annals of the Bolus Herbarium.[9]

Louisa Bolus spent much of her life doing in-depth research on

University of Stellenbosch.[11]

A plant belonging to the large family Mesembreyanthemum, genus

R. H. Compton. Bolus was also considered a pioneer of the nature study classes at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.[2] In 1966, she became vice president of the African Succulent Plant Society.[3]

Bolus studied the

Orchidaceae
. She frequently published in botanical journals in addition to popular gardening articles and books, notably A Book of South African Flora. She was elected a Fellow of the
honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch University. The genus Bolusanthus and the species Geissorhiza louisabolusiae are named in her honour.[4]

The standard
author abbreviations L.Bolus and Kensit are used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[12]

Personal life

In 1912 Louisa Kensit married Harry Bolus's son (and her father's cousin) Frank Bolus. She was widowed when Frank Bolus died in 1945. Louisa Bolus died at her home in Claremont, Cape Town in 1970 at the age of 93.[2]

Works

  • Annals of the Bolus Herbarium. University Press. 1914.
  • Elementary Lessons in Systematic Botany. Cape Town. 1919.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Notes on Mesembryanthemum and Allied Genera. University of Cape Town. 1927.
  • A Book of South African Flowers. Juta. 1928.
  • A Second Book of South African Flowers. Specialty Press of South Africa. 1936.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Lindon et al. 2015, pp. 209–215.
  2. ^ a b c d e Creese & Creese 2010, pp. 17–18.
  3. ^ a b c Biography of Louisa Bolus at the S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science
  4. ^ a b Ogilvie & Harvey 2000, p. 317.
  5. ^ Staples.
  6. ^ Rourke 2001, pp. 120–123.
  7. ^ Bolus & Barclay 1928.
  8. ^ Bolus 1936.
  9. ^ Bolus 1914.
  10. ^ Bolus 1927.
  11. ^ Gunn & Codd 1981, p. 97.
  12. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index.

Further reading

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