The death of Peter Florschütz, on 27 May 1976, deprived the world of bryology of another of its spiritual leaders. Having fully regained scientific momentum after a period of managerial and organisational involvements connected with the changes in Dutch University life which occurred in the late sixties and early seventies, Florschütz had succeeded in starting a promising school of Utrecht cryptogamists, when, almost abruptly, death ended what would have become his scientific fulfilment. Peter Arnold Florschütz was born in the Hague on 16 March 1923. His father, Gaspard Florschütz, was a chief inspector of the Hague city police and his mother was Elizabeth Philippina Engelina Scharwachter. He is survived by his mother, his wife, his three children and two sisters.