Studies on the Acanthaceae of Thailand

After the completion of his large treatment of the Acanthaceae for the Flore de l’Indo-Chine (1935) R. Benoist gave up any further study of the Acanthaceae of S.E. Asia. A very rich and almost unattended material of the family collected in Indochina during the following years accumulated in the Paris herbarium. By this time the well-known, Dutch acanthologist, C.E.B. Bremekamp, commenced studies in the Acanthaceae. For thirty years he published a wealth of papers on the subject until he in the late sixties due to failing eyesight was forced to give up his taxonomic activities. He has identified many of the early collections from Thailand made by Danish botanists and he published a few enumerations containing quite a number of new taxa. Simultaneously after the appearance of the Acanthaceae in the Flore Joan B. Imlay, Aberdeen, took up an intense study of the Thai representatives of the family. A fairly large paper with many new species and new combinations appeared in the Kew Bulletin (1939). A few years ago I learned from Mr. L.L. Forman, Kew, that she shortly afterwards went to South Africa and apparently ceased working in botany.