As could be announced summarily in the previous issue of Blumea, Professor Van Steenis died on 14 May 1986, after a short illness. In 1926 his first publications about Malesian plants came from the press, and so it has been a period of sixty years that he has devoted his life to the study of the Malesian flora. In Blumea 20 (1), 1972, at the occasion of his retirement as professor of Leiden University and director of the Rijksherbarium, two papers were published by, respectively, Mrs. M.J. van Steenis-Kruseman and Dr. M. Jacobs. Together they give a fairly extensive biographical picture and there seems to be no reason to reiterate the biographical facts at great length. A few highlights may suffice.