Robert Allen Rolfe ( 1855 - 1921 )

"He was essentially a self-made and self-taught man. He rose from the ranks . His luck took him to Kew. He claimed into a position of scientific standing by sheer industry and perservance ." This quote buy Otto Stapf simplifies yet essentially characterizes the orchidologist journalist who for many years signed his herbarium notes with the initials R.A.R.

Forty years of servive to Kew -the greater part of his professional career- typify the steady performance of Robert Allen Rolfe . His remarkable knowledge of orchid was gained through a keen eye and a good memory . He held his own against the formidable and jealous Reichenbach, stepping into the position of world master of orchidology when that renowned Hamburgian died . Recognizing the importance of garden hybrids, which the earliest botanists were inclined to ignore , he spared no effort to always the earliest botanists were inclined to ignore , he spread no effort to always keep in touch with all kinds or orchids in the horticultural field . His wonderful devotion to that particular family of plants undoubtedly led to the founding of The Orchid Review ,a " general repertorium of orchid lore," as he loved to call it .

Robert Allen Rolfe was born on 12 May 1855at Ruddington , a village near Nottingham, England .In 1879 , after spending some time in the duke of Portland's famous gardens at Welback Abbey , Nottinghamshire ,Rolfe entered Kew as an apprentice gardener . Though taken on as a horticulturist , his interest in botany and allied sciences led to his nomination as a candidate for a vacancy in the herbarium . passing his competitive examinations at the head of the list , he commenced his career as government botanist in July 1880.Not long thereafter Sir Joseph Hooker ,then director of the Royal Botanic Gardens , advised Rolfe to make orchids his speciality .

The Kew herbarium and library were an inexhaustible mine for young Rolfe and from it his academic knowledge grew,while the accumulation of plants in the gardens kept him in constant with the living material . Thus his authority as an expert developed gradually on a two fold basis .

During Rolfe's long term of service at Kew practically all orchid material passed through his hands . In his first few years he collaborated with Senor Don seabastian Vidal in determining the large collections made by Hugh Cuming and Vidal himself in the Philippines . Rolfe later spent a great deal of time on the material which arrived in great profusion from these islands as well as on F.C. Lehmann's collection from Colombia and Ecuador . He founded the genera Eulophiella and Neomoorea , besides naming hundreds of species and reclassifying others . His first contribution to the literature of orchids was A Revision of the Genus Phalaenopsis ,published in the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1886.

Before Rolfe's time the orchid specimens received at Kew were , for the most part, sent to Germany for determination by H.G. Reichenbach ,because after John Lindley's death there remained no English authority on the Orchidaceae . Reichenbach resented Rolfe's had convictions of his own and generally stood by them . Thus , whatever enmity existed between the two masters sprang from their self-willed determination . Rolf was known as " a hard nut to crack ."Some even called him pigheated . When he felt he was right about something , that was the end of it as far as he was concerned . when reichenbach died in 1889, stipulating in his will that his herbarium he sealed for twenty-five years , it was a severe blow to Rolfe .Whether or not the action was directly intentional toward Rolfe, he felt badly about it , for in any case it deprived the orchid world of much valuable information for too long a time .

Rolfe's greatest interest was in keeping himself informed of every thing possible that concerned orchids. He thought nothing of going on an extended journey by bicycle or train , in his own time and at his own expense , to see interesting collections or even a single specimen reported to be in flower. He regularly attended the meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society and was often wont to spend considerable time making notes on all the uncommon orchids exhibited. He became closely associated with the orchidists of England , leading his assistance to assure accurate naming of plants and ,by his voluminous writing, setting forth the history of rare and desirable horticultural species . His great love for these flowers led him in 1893 to found The Orchid Review , a monthly journal which became the respository of a mass of information and critical notes from his pen . This periodical was almost the personification of its creator ; for twenty eight years it lived a remarkably regular , sober, and useful life. When Rolfe was forced by illness to give up his editorship , he died so unwillingly despite the hard work and personal financial loss incurred in its publication .

Though Rolfe was known chiefly for his work in connection with orchids, he also devoted considerable time to other plant groups, notably Myoporineae ,Selagineae ,and Rosaceae . His publications span forty years , beginning with a paper on oak galls in the Entomologist of 1881. Among his early important works was one in which he was engaged in dealing with the large collections of Senor Vidal in the production of Phanerogamae Cumingianae Philippinarum in 1885.

Many of the plants in the Botanical Magazine from 1905 to 1921 were described by Rolfe ,especially orchids , and he also contributed to Hooker's Icones Plantarum . He monographed the Orchidaceae in the Flora of Tropical Africa and the Flora Capensis , excepting the genera Brownleea and Disa. Meanwhile , he contributed both popular and scientific articles to the kew Bulletin , the Gardeners' Chronicle , the Journal of th Linnean Society , Reichenbachia , Lindenia and other journals . He was much interested in orchid hybridization and , with Charles C. Hurst in 1909, published The Orchid Stud Book , an enumeration of hybrid orchids of artificial origin.

Rolfe was of a shy , retiring nature, and this was deemed the result of an unforutnate deafness , a serious handicap to him . This defect , coupled with a natural modesty , kept him out of the limelight that makes for popularity . To some extent , however , he possibly profited from this disability , for he seemed able to proceed undistrubed with his work in circumstances that would have caused serious interruption to others . He was content the way he was ,but occasionally sighed for more elbow room. All the same ,he was a man of action ,and , among the many eminent scientists developed at Kew , his work was worthy of high esteem.

Outward recognition of his accomplishments came through his election as an associate of the Linnean Society in 1885 and as an honorary fellow and member of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1906. He was also a member of the latter society's Orchid Committee. He was awarded the Gold Medal of L'Academie Internationale de Geographie Botanique a la science in 1917, and shortly before his death he was honored with the Gold Medal of the Veitch Memorial Trust and the Victoria Medal of Honour in Horticulture. Several species of orchids and other plants were named in his honor, as well as the natural orchid genus Rolfea and the hybrid orchid genus Rolfeara .

Rolfe had never traveled , and it was with keen anticipation , at the age of sixty -five , that he planned a trip to Central and South America to make up for the gap in his education as a botanist . But juse when he was about to set out on his first venture he was halted by the sudden occurrence of a brain tumor . His illness persisted , and on 13 April 1921 , he died at his home at Kew.

References

Ames , Oakes . 1933. Robert Allen Rolfe-1855-1921.Amer. Orch.Soc. Bull.2, no.3.

Garden,The . 1921. Obituary.Vol. 85,no. 2579.

Gardeners' Chronicle. 1921. Mr.R.A.Rolfe .Vol. 69, no. 1781.

Gardener's Chronicle . 1921Obituary .Vol. 69,no. 1791.

Kew Bulletin . 1921. Miscellaneous Notes .No.3 .

Orchid Review , The . 1933. Robert Allen Role .Vol. 41,no. 475.

Stapf ,O.1921. The Late Robert Allen Rolfe. The Orch. Rev. 29,no. 337.