Dr. Bakhuizen van den Brink retires

On 11 September 1976 dr. Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink will reach the age of 65 and so he must retire from his position as a senior botanist at the Rijksherbarium. He has worked in our institute since December 1943, after having obtained his doctor’s degree in Utrecht. At the Rijksherbarium he became heavily involved in the preparation of the so-called ‘emergency edition’ of C. A. Backer’s Beknopte Flora van Java, which was mimeographed during the war in order to restrict the chances of destroyal of Backer’s valuable manuscripts. When after the war it was decided to translate Backer’s concise flora into English and to update and complete it, he gradually took over the burden from Backer who in 1945 was already over seventy. As a consequence the Flora of Java, published in three parts between 1963 and 1968, bears both names as authors on the title-page. Quite appropriately too, seeing that he devoted so much of his time, energy, and knowledge to this piece of work.