E. A. C. L. E. (Ted) Scheipe (1924-1985) — a biography

Prof. E .A.C .L.E. Scheipe was born in Durban on 27 July 1924 and died in Cape Town on 12 October 1985. He studied at the University of Natal and at Oxford, England. He was awarded an M.Sc. (S. Afr.) for a thesis on the ecology of the Natal Drakensberg and a D. Phil. (Oxon.) for a thesis on the ecology of bryophytes. For a brief period he was Curator of the Fielding Herbarium, Oxford. In 1953 he was appointed Lecturer in Botany at the University of Cape Town, until in 1973 he was awarded a full professorship (ad hominem) and the title of Director of the Bolus Herbarium. Here he established a school of taxonomy and promoted 22 theses. His main fields of research were the taxonomy and phytogeography of Pteridophyta (especially African groups) and of Orchidaceae. He has 112 publications to his credit and collected over 7 000 numbers in various regions o f Africa, in Europe and the Himalayas. He was a keen gardener and was active in several societies promoting horticulture, orchidology and nature conservation. He was a member of several scientific committees and was repeatedly honoured for his work. Three children were born from his marriage to Sybella Gray, also a botanist. CONTENTS lege. In Durban with its subtropical climate she D * 1 .̂u A u  ̂ A n-7 found scope for her interest in plants, awakened in Parents, early youth and school days............ ........97 , , . ^ t ’ * u f a • t* TT • /xT * 1 j f ♦ I ♦ no herbyherow nfathersen thusiasm forgarden ing .lt University of Natal and first employment.... 98 a * Oxford 99 environment that young Ted grew up, atran ^ T o w n ” a c a d e m i c and f a ........... QQ tending firstly Marist Brothers’s College and then m Durban Boys High where he matriculated at the Health and last years ....................................... 103 ° ■ . . . t ■ Grants, honours, committees.......................... 103 the excitement of seemg Fields of research and publications............... 103 J,"*? collecting his first wild orchid plam at the top of Collecting expeditions and collections........... 104 * Kloof Pass while on his way to Cape Town by List of publications........................................... 106 "'^en he was only 12 years Conference proceedings................................... 108 ‘he same year he wrote a school essay on the Theses of post-graduate students................... 108 Perennial theme of ‘What do you wish to be when Plants named after Scheipe............................ 108 you grow up?'. In that essay he made it quite clear Acknowledgements........................................... 108 that he was going to be a Professor of Botany . U ittreksel........................................................... 108 '^ ŝits to the Cape Ted spent much of his time in the municipal botanical gardens where he met the PARENTS, EARLY YOUTH AND SCHOOL DA YS horticultural Staff and watched the repotting of Shipwrecks and disasters at sea have been very greenhouse plants, especially orchids. He also met a much part of the history of southern Africa. One Mr Duncan of Jutas, the publishing firm, who was a such event had a profound effect on the history and keen grower of orchids. He spent many hours with development of botany, not only on this subcontithis enthusiast at his home chatting about orchids nent but in Africa as a whole. ‘over ginger beer and biscuits’. This contact was a Edmund and Martha Scheipe, refugees from Belsignificant one because Duncan noted Ted’s remarkgium during the First World War, were en route able memory for plants and later wrote to his father from England to start a new life in Australia when saying that the boy should be given every encouragetheir ship caught fire near Durban. All the passenment to take up botany as a profession, gers were landed in Durban to await further arrangeProf. Michael Webb of Stellenbosch and Ted ments for their journey. The couple liked the city Scheipe were contemporaries in their early school and its climate so much that they decided not to go days in Durban, both attending Marist Brothers, on to Australia but rather to settle in Durban. Their They lived close to each other and often found themonly child was born there on 27th July 1924 and selves walking to school together. One interest they christened Edmund Andre Charles Louis Eloi — shared was stamp collecting and this brought Mi‘Ted’ as he later became known. chael to the Scheipe home. He remembers the house The Scheipe parents came from the Brugge area Currie Road standing in large, impressive of Flanders and had both Flemish and French as grounds. A fine jacaranda tree in the front garden home languages. He was a musician and soon obhad numerous exotic orchids attached to it and of tained a post as organist at the Roman Catholic Cath p e Ted was very proud. Beyond it stood a superb thedral in Durban and later opened his own school brick and glass conservatory with a spray irrigation of music in that city. Ted’s mother, through her system which his parents had built for his orchid colbackground and training in the traditional art of lection and this all while he was still in his early lace-making, taught at the Durban Technical Colteens. During this period Michael Webb remembers ________ Ted as being a very self-assured and friendly boy, * Botanical Research Unit, Department of Agriculture and interested mainly in his hobbies: plants and, to a Water Supply, P. O. Box 471, Stellenbosch 7600. lesser extent, stamps. 98 Bothalia 16,1 (1986) UNIVERSITY OF NATAL AN D FIRST EMPLOYMENT No wonder then that Ted Schelpe went to Pieter­ maritzburg to enrol at the then Natal University Col­ lege for a degree in botany. He arrived there in 1941, just after Prof. Adolf Bayer had taken over the de­ partment from Prof. John Bews who had become Vice-Principal. In 1943 Ted obtained his B.Sc. de­ gree with distinction in botany, the other major be­ ing chemistry. Fig. 1.

horticultural Staff and watched the repotting of Shipwrecks and disasters at sea have been very greenhouse plants, especially orchids. He also met a much part of the history of southern Africa. One Mr Duncan of Jutas, the publishing firm, who was a such event had a profound effect on the history and keen grower of orchids. He spent many hours with development of botany, not only on this subconti-this enthusiast at his home chatting about orchids nent but in Africa as a whole.
'over ginger beer and biscuits'. This contact was a Edmund and Martha Scheipe, refugees from Bel-significant one because Duncan noted Ted's remarkgium during the First World War, were en route able memory for plants and later wrote to his father from England to start a new life in Australia when saying that the boy should be given every encouragetheir ship caught fire near Durban. All the passen-ment to take up botany as a profession, gers were landed in Durban to await further arrange-Prof. Michael Webb of Stellenbosch and Ted ments for their journey. The couple liked the city Scheipe were contemporaries in their early school and its climate so much that they decided not to go days in Durban, both attending Marist Brothers, on to Australia but rather to settle in Durban. Their They lived close to each other and often found themonly child was born there on 27th July 1924 and selves walking to school together. One interest they christened Edmund Andre Charles Louis Eloi -shared was stamp collecting and this brought Mi-'Ted' as he later became known.
chael to the Scheipe home. He remembers the house The Scheipe parents came from the Brugge area Currie Road standing in large, impressive of Flanders and had both Flemish and French as grounds. A fine jacaranda tree in the front garden home languages. He was a musician and soon ob-had numerous exotic orchids attached to it and of tained a post as organist at the Roman Catholic Ca-th p e Ted was very proud. Beyond it stood a superb thedral in Durban and later opened his own school brick and glass conservatory with a spray irrigation of music in that city. Ted's mother, through her system which his parents had built for his orchid colbackground and training in the traditional art of lection and this all while he was still in his early lace-making, taught at the Durban Technical Col-teens. During this period Michael Webb remembers ________ Ted as being a very self-assured and friendly boy,

UNIVERSITY OF NATAL AN D FIRST EMPLOYMENT
No wonder then that Ted Schelpe went to Pieter maritzburg to enrol at the then Natal University Col lege for a degree in botany. He arrived there in 1941, just after Prof. Adolf Bayer had taken over the de partment from Prof. John Bews who had become Vice-Principal. In 1943 Ted obtained his B.Sc. de gree with distinction in botany, the other major be ing chemistry. Fig. 1. m FIG. 1.-B.Sc. graduation, Pietermaritzburg, 1943. Michael Webb met up with Ted again at univer sity, arriving a year later, so that Ted demonstrated to him in his first year. As a demonstrator he was very helpful but meticulous about details and neat ness of anatomical and morphological drawings. Mi chael also remembers well Ted's pet hate at univer sity -Prof. Bayer's habit of referring to him as 'EA GLE' Schelpe! Michael Webb and several other students remember with great pleasure the excur sions which Ted organized for botany and zoology students. (See also the paragraph Collecting expedi tions and collections below). In December 1943 he took them on a two-week excursion down to Port St Johns, and in December 1944 he organized a major expedition to his favourite stamping ground in the Drakensberg, the Cathedral Peak area. It was ob vious to the other students that Ted knew the area and its plants extremely well.
Prof. Olive Hilliard remembers that Ted often rounded up the students on a Saturday, or even a Sunday, and took them out to Town Bush Valley or Chase Valley on the municipal bus to teach them something about the local plants.
Much of the material he collected in Natal was de posited in the Natal University Herbarium which he was paid to look after during his student days. Con sequently numerous labels and species covers are written in his hand. Many of his specimens in the herbarium are labelled 'cultivated in Durban', which gives an indication of the large and varied living col lection he must have had at home. Ted Schelpe was accepted by the other students as a leader and they regarded him as an authority on a wide range of sub jects. Even in those early student days his know ledge of plants and their names appears to have been encyclopaedic.
All of those involved with Ted in his student days have vivid memories of his favourite pastime: yodel ling. In the Drakensberg on excursions or in the de partment while working, he would break into yodel ling, which he apparently performed very well. At sports functions in particular, there would be stamp ing and clapping and cries of 'Schelpe, Schelpe'. This was the signal for him to leap up and yodel. At one of the swimming galas held at the baths at Alexandra Park he chose to stand on the end of the high diving board, the better to be heard. Needless to say, some one crept up behind him and he did an involuntary dive amid mighty cheers and laughter.
During 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, Ted enrolled with the army and was posted to the Aviation Medicine Research Section of the South African Medical Corps in Johannesburg as a laboratory technician. Here he found himself doing numerous uninspiring blood counts. So when volunteers were asked to 'feed' the experimental bedbugs, Ted was prepared to do anything for a change. The trouble came when all his bedbugs died of overdoses of his blood, so back it was to the bloodcounts. His apparent immunity to bedbugs stood him in good stead during the expedition to the Himalayas: when use had to be made of local accom modation he was the only member of the party who slept in peace.
After demobilization at the end of 1945, he went back to university to complete his thesis for the M.Sc. degree. With the strong ecological bias at Pietermaritzburg, and his great interest in the Dra kensberg, it is not surprising that he followed an eco logical line of research. His dissertation was entitled The plant ecology o f the Cathedral Peak area o f the Natal Drakensberg. The study began in July 1942 while he was still an undergraduate and continued during several subsequent visits to the area in 1943 and 1944. He chose this area because it was, at that time, biotically one of the least disturbed regions of the range. The greater part of the thesis was written while he was serving in the Medical Corps. He ob tained his degree, which was conferred by the Uni versity of South Africa (Natal was only a College at the time), in 1946. The thesis remains unpublished.
For the first part of 1947 Ted worked at the Royal Natal National Park as horticulturist preparing the place for the visit of King George VI later that year. He was responsible for laying out the gardens around the hotel which was owned by the Zunckel family. While there, he built up a fine collection of the fauna and flora of the park and prepared an ex cellent exhibit. This was so admired by Queen Eliza beth that she asked to see the young man, who un prepared for the occasion, was ushered into her presence in boots and khaki workclothes. Ted was most impressed with the way in which she put him at ease.

OXFORD
Late in 1947 he set sail for England. He stopped over in Cape Town and made his first ascent of Table Mountain in the company of Jan Graaff with whom he later teamed up in an expedition to the Hi malayas. In Michaelmas term, Ted entered Wadham College to work in the Botany School for the D.Phil. degree under the supervision of the Sherardian Pro fessor, the late T. G. B. Osborn. With his ecological training at Natal University College as background he chose to work on the ecology of lower plants. In Trinity Term (June) 1951 he successfully submitted a thesis entitled The ecology o f Bryophytes on arable land in the Oxford District. It is surprising that he chose bryophytes as he had not previously shown any special interest in that group. This gave rise to only one short publication, on the techniques for the experimental culture of bryophytes, but this thesis was highly regarded by the late E. F. Warburg, the taxonomist in the Botany School and one of the leading bryologists of his day. A copy of his thesis is still on the open shelves in the Botany School hbrary and shows signs of having been handled frequently. Ted Schelpe's urge to organize collecting expedi tions had not been left behind in Natal, and in 1947 he began planning for a university expedition to Africa (see also Collecting expeditions and collec tions below). He had decided to have a Cambridge botanist in the team and eventually Frank White was provisionally chosen. He was summoned to meet Ted at the Royal Geographical Society'^ headquar ters in Kensington Gore, and so began a life-long friendship. They had received a grant from the Uni versity Exploration Society, but on return to Britain found that the expedition was very much in the red. To make up the shortfall they gave numerous lec tures, showing the films that had been taken. They also had interviews with the BBC in the very early days of television. Thus they were able to meet their debts and turn the trip into a financial success.
After completing his D.Phil., Ted held a tempo rary post for a short period as curator of the Fielding Herbarium at Oxford. During his tenure he worked on the ancient herbaria and some recent collections of South American plants. In 1952 he became in volved in another collecting expedition, this time a small private one to the Himalayas.
From his expeditions, Ted brought back living plants, mainly orchids, for cuUivation in the Oxford Botanic Garden. Some of them still survive. Among them was the attractive epiphytic orchid, Aerangis rhodosticta (from Ethiopia). This was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society on 17 November 1953 and subsequently became widely grown. The terrestrial orchid, Eulophia welwitschii, which he collected at the Ngong Hills in Kenya, received a unanimous Award of Merit at the R.H.S. on 22 May 1951.
Ted came to Oxford with considerable horticultu ral skills. His techniques for growing orchids were adopted at the Botanic Garden with conspicuous success. It is said that during one year the orchids he had coaxed into bloom could be seen adorning vari ous young ladies at the Commemoration Balls. The story is possibly apocryphal, but it caused him great amusement.
Ted gave tutorials to undergraduates in his rooms at Banbury Road. Many are the times that a fellow lodger heard him droning on about 'a drupe being a true fruit . . .' Like most Oxford students he en joyed the camaraderie of groups at the local pubs, particularly the Abingdon Arms, where he is known to have done the flower arrangements for the hostess on a number of occasions. He developed a certain sartorial elegance and always referred to his NBPS -navy blue pinstripe suit! This was in strong con trast to his later years when the safari suit ( Fig. 2) or sports jacket and baggy grey flannels were very much in evidence. However, one bit of Oxford garb which stayed with him was his academic gown which he referred to as his 'Basuto blanket' at graduation ceremonies.
Ted is remembered in Oxford with affection as a 'character' with a refreshingly original approach to life, a robust sense of humour and infectious laugh ter. He often took the lead in organizing get-togethers and parties and his hospitality was prover bial. At his rooms in the evenings on most nights of the week one could meet interesting people from all walks of academic and non-academic life. There were nurses, dons, Chinese scholars, archaeologists and even some of the 1951/52 Springbok Rugby Team, Stephen Fry, Ben Myburg and 'Chum' Ochse. Ted would get out his ukelele and they raised the roof with Sarie Marais and other songs, ducking out to the Pheasant nearby for jugs of ale to keep the voices lubricated. When he returned to South Africa his closest friends thought Oxford might never be the same again.

CAPE TOWN: ACADEM IC AN D FAMILY LIFE
When he joined the Botany Department at the University of Cape Town in February 1953, Prof. William Edwyn Isaac had just taken over the De partment from Prof. Robert Adamson. Ted took over from Audrey Rose-Innes lecturing in general botany, including taxonomy. In 1954 he was pro moted to senior lecturer with the sole responsibility of Plant Taxonomy. When Dr Louisa Bolus retired at the end of 1955, after 45 years as Honorary Cura tor of the Bolus Herbarium, Ted was appointed to the first post of Curator of the herbarium in 1956. In 1968 he was promoted to Associate Professor and in 1973 he was awarded a full professorship (ad hominem) and the title of Director of the Bolus Herbar ium.
Prof. Schelpe expanded and enriched South Afri can botany by his establishment of a strong plant tax onomy teaching and research school centred in the Bolus Herbarium. This is perhaps surprising seeing that he had had no formal training in taxonomy at university. He took pride in his Oxford approach to tuition for which he said he had to thank Jack Harley. This might have worked in the Oxford environment, but, in my opinion, was not very successful in South Africa. His modus operandi was to 'throw a student in at the deep end; and if he sinks then he will be no good, if he swims he'll be a good taxonomist' (some may claim he carried this to extremes). The taxo nomy students who did pass through his hands are, the following: Associate Prof. A. V. Hall (Assistant* Director, Bolus Herbarium), Dr J. P. Rourke (Cu rator, Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch), Dr P. I first met Ted Schelpe when a fellow student, John Jessop, and I, as enthusiastic budding taxo nomists, were introduced to the Bolus Herbarium towards the end of our first year in 1958. We were somewhat overawed by his presence and the atmos phere of the herbarium, but were soon deeply im mersed in what the herbarium and its staff had to offer young taxonomists. In post-graduate courses we received no formal lectures from him, and our taxonomy was learnt through experience and know ledge gained by wading through textbooks, litera ture and specimens, then sharpened and honed dur ing extended tea-time discussions with him in the Bolus Herbarium.
All who have passed through his taxonomy school will remember Schelpe's Law of Taxonomy: 1, taxo nomy is easy provided you have insufficient material and no intermediates; 2, it is much easier to describe a new species than to sink an old one; 3, if you can not key out a species they are in the process of active speciation. Students found that they learned a lot about plants in their excursions with him, whether to the university's field station at Bain's Kloof, up Table Mountain or just in a ramble around the gar dens at Kirstenbosch. In post-graduate examinations students were always apprehensive about the un known flowers that were presented for placing into families, knowing full well that he was always likely to produce a most unusual specimen, often carefully nurtured in his own garden. But his students soon got to know that Prof. Schelpe's bark was worse than his bite; intense discussions were always broken by his quips, followed by his unique laugh, often ac companied by the preening of that elegant R.A.F.style moustache which he had cultivated since his earliest student days.
On 29 June 1954 Ted Schelpe and Sybella Gray of Simondium, Cape, who was a junior lecturer in the Department at the time, were married in St Mi chael's R.C. Church, Rondebosch. At Oxford he was known to remark that he would have to find a girl who would make a suitable professor's wife. For those of us who have had the privilege of knowing Ted and Sybella: what better choice could he have made? (Fig. 3). Their's was an exemplary partner ship in work, hobby and family life. Their three chil dren, Janette, James and Charles, made Ted and Sybella very proud parents. Now grown up, they have, surprisingly, not followed in the botanical footsteps of their parents, but as Janette put it to me, 'two in the family were quite enough'.

PLANTSMAN A N D TEACHER
Ted Schelpe combined his professional scientific interests with a love of growing plants. He was a plantsman in the real sense of the word. As Michael Byren put it 'Ted took great delight in growing as many different plants as possible and, together with Sybella, the garden at their lovely home, Westfield, must bear witness to this passion. I sometimes got the impression that, with that twinkle in his eyes, even the rarest, most beautiful orchid could not compete with a new season's first strawberries or broccoli!'. Undoubtedly one of Ted's greatest joys was his large fine garden in which he spent many happy hours.
This led Ted into his many involvements with amateurs in the south-western Cape, the rest of South Africa and, eventually, the world. In 1957 he was the motivating force, together with the late Dr A. J. Ballantine, in the formation of the Cape Or chid Society (later the Orchid Society of South Africa) which was launched in the Schelpes' flat in  Ted also took part in the activities of the Botanical Society of South Africa which he joined as a family member in 1960. In 1963 he was elected to its Coun cil on which he served until his death. From 1976-78 he was Chairman of Council and in April 1982 was elected President of the Society. He was consultant, reader and writer of popular scientific articles for its journal, co-author of the first Wild Flower Guide and he acted as tour leader on excursions to south ern Namaqualand.
This in turn led him into involvement in the affairs of the National Botanic Gardens, Kirstenbosch. He represented the Botanical Society's Council on the Board of Trustees, firstly as an alternate trustee from 1974-77, then as a full member from 1978-83, and again as an alternate from 1983. During the period 1977-78 he acted as the alternate trustee to the Principal of the University of Cape Town. He also served on the Gardens Scientific Committee and he had recently completed a report for the Trustees on the suitability of sites for the establish ment of regional gardens.
In the Botanical and Orchid Societies Ted was a judge at many of the flower shows. In the orchid world he was recognized internationally as a good judge (Fig. 4). Sometimes Ted's directness of com ment regarding quality was felt to be harsh but with him true praise was reserved for excellence which, when achieved, he was the first to recognize.
Even though Ted was a professor and renowned botanist, he was able to communicate so well with amateurs, whether at meetings, on outings, at Uni versity Summer Schools or in discussion groups at his home. The South African orchid community and members of the Botanical Society have over the years been able to benefit from his vast knowledge and practical experience and for this they are deeply grateful. To many South Africans he was also well known for his appearances on the original radio panel in the series, 'Talking of Nature', chaired by Dr Douglas Hey.

HEALTH AN D LAST YEARS
Ted seems to have been bedevilled by the ease with which he contracted chest infections, mostly in the influenza line. He had a rather highly strung nature and was also a heavy smoker for most of his life. At Oxford he was known for worrying about his latest bout of infection following his most recent out ing or expedition. He would stalk into the favourite Abingdon Arms during winter evenings, swathed in an overcoat of sombre hue, full of dire foreboding about the particularly virulent strain of flu virus he had just picked up.
One problem which must surely have had a pro found effect on Ted Schelpe's whole physical and mental well-being during the last ten years, espe cially the last year, was the uncertain future of the Bolus Herbarium and with it, his taxonomy school. During the last few years considerable debate had taken place in and out of the University in both offi cial and private circles on the fate of the Herbarium. In 1984 it was eventually removed from the main campus and moved to the City Campus with the 'promise' that this would only be temporary.
He had just completed reading the galley proofs of the Pteridophyta volume for the Flora o f southern Africa, during a bout of flu, and had had a full morn ing's happy discussions with orchid enthusiasts at his home, when he died of cardiac arrest during the evening of Saturday, 12th October.
It was a stunned botanical, horticultural and or chid world that learnt of his death via the national news bulletin on the radio the following day.
Many friends and colleagues, botanists and plant lovers payed their last respects to Ted Schelpe at the Requiem Mass held on 18th October in St Michael's R.C. Church, Rondebosch. The pallbearers were his two sons, James and Charles, his nephew, Nicholas Gray, and three of his former students, Anthony Hall, John Rourke and myself. He was buried at a private ceremony in the burial ground of his wife's family at St George's Anglican Church, Groot Drakenstein.
Michael Byren of the Orchid Society, a long standing friend, included these words in his oration: 'The suddenness of his untimely death has left a numbness which only time will heal. Ted Schelpe has touched all our lives in some way or another. His scientific integrity, his absolute honesty and, most of all, the zest with which he tackled life and living will not be forgotten.' Apart from his involvement in committees and so cieties mentioned in the section Flantsman and teacher (above) he was also a member of the Com mittee on Pteridophyta of the International Associa tion for Plant Taxonomy (since 1964) and of the In ternational Orchid Commission (since 1966) and Chairman of the Commission and of its Committee on Orchid Taxonomy and Nomenclature (since 1975). He also served on the Advisory Committee .for Botanical Research to the Minister of Agricul ture and Water Supply since its creation in 1975.

FIELDS OF RESEARCH AN D PUBLICATIONS
Ted Schelpe's many and varied research and teaching activities are reflected in his publications, both scientific (70) and popular (30), his contribu tions to conference proceedings (12) and the theses of his post-graduate students (22)

. (See List o f pub lications and Theses o f post-graduate students be low).
His fields of research can be grouped as follows: 1

Taxonomy o f African Pteridophyta
His main contribution to botanical research has been in the taxonomic study of the African Pterido phyta. The Flora Zambesiaca volume (1970) covered the species occurring in Zambia, Mozambique, Zim babwe, Malawi and Botswana with an update of the revision for the Flora de Mogambique assisted by Adelia Diniz in 1979. The Angolan species were cov ered in the Conspectus Florae Angolensis (1977). The Pteridophyta of southern Zaire were covered in his treatment (1974) of the species collected by sev eral Belgian research teams. He also published re views of seven families of ferns for the whole of Tropical Africa in 1970. With the completion of the pteridophyte volume for the Flora o f southern Africa due for publication in 1986, he had completed the coverage for southern Africa and most of south cen tral Africa. The co-author of this work is a post graduate assistant, Mrs Nicola Anthony. Unfortu nately he did not have the study leave available to write up the ferns of tropical east Africa. Conse quently, after discussion with colleagues in London, he had been persuaded to attempt a conspectus of the Pteridophyta of continental Africa as a basis for future international research.
He was also engaged on scanning electron micro scopic studies of fern spores which had revealed the existence of local segregates in some fern species complexes, and on sporangium/spore counts which had provided clues to the distribution of apogamous taxa. Both lines of enquiry he was hoping to pursue on a broader local and continental scale.

Taxonomy o f southern African Orchidaceae
The Bolus Herbarium has been the centre for southern African orchid taxonomy since its founda tion by Harry Bolus and the publication of his three volumes covering most of the species then known. Publication of Schelpe's (1966) 'Introduction to the South African Orchids' served not only to commem orate the centenary of the Bolus Herbarium, but also to promote an interest in this group.
Much of Ted Schelpe's input into the taxonomy of the South African Orchidaceae has been in the form of supervision of the projects and theses of his stu dents. Research by staff and post-graduate students (Hall, Linder, Immelman, Anthony) contributed substantially to Wild orchids o f southern Africa (1982) edited by Joyce Stewart. The students men tioned have also supplied the manuscripts completed to date for the orchid volume of the Flora o f south ern Africa which is being compiled at present.

Schelpe's personal research was on Habenaria and
Bonatea, started in conjunction with Dr J. Renz of Switzerland, and on overviews and phytogeography of the family. He had also begun to study pollination mechanisms (such as self-pollination) in several gen era and was planning to investigate the winter rain fall species of Disperis with a post-graduate student.
In the interest of the conservation of rare and endan gered species in the south-western Cape he had also begun to study the orchids in the Blue Downs area near Kuils River where some 15 species occur in an area zoned for high density housing. Here he was particularly interested in the fire ecology (food re serve metabolism) causing the remarkable flush of flowering following the fire of 1974. The authorities plan to burn the vegetation in this area in February 1986 in the interest of botanical research.
3 Taxonomy  In the Hght of his constant observation of the species in his glasshouses, he was devising a more workable and more natural classification than the one by Kraenzlin currently in use. He was using ve getative characters (e.g. leaf sheath anatomy and surfaces) together with features of the inflorescence development, neither of which had been used be fore. He had also observed self-sterility in a number of species rare in cultivation and it had been pro posed to pursue this line of research with a view to their possible cultivation. Unfortunately this re vision was not completed and is not in a publishable form. All living plants and his notes are being do nated to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, by his wife.

Taxonomy and systematics o f winter rainfall Scrophulariaceae
As the volume of the Flora o f southern Africa on the Pteridophyta had been completed and as work on the volume on Orchidaceae is well advanced, Ted redirected his field work to a study of the two gen era, Nemesia and Diascia, within the winter rainfall region. Preliminary SEM studies of seed surfaces had indicated that they can provide useful taxonomic characters, at least in Nemesia. Discovery of two dif ferent seed types in populations of N. anisocarpa was to receive special attention. As many of the species concerned are semi-desert plants of Namaqualand and Bushmanland, the progress of this pro ject was dependant on adequate rainfall. It is ironic that the best rainfall in living memory fell in much of the area just after he died.

Bryophytes
Ted maintained an interest in Bryophytes from his Oxford days. He was always interested in collecting species, particularly those ephemeral ones from the drier areas such as Namaqualand. He often found time to curate the collections in the Bolus Herbar ium. This side of his interests resulted in several papers and culminated in the checklist of southern African species published jointly with Dr R. E. Magill (1979).

Gasteria
His first publication on Angiospermae (1958) had dealt with the succulent genus Gasteria of the Liliaceae. He retained an interest in the group over the years and had hoped to co-operate with Ernst van Jaarsveld, the horticulturist in charge of the succu lent collections at Kirstenbosch, on a revision of the genus.

1942-46 Drakensberg
His study of the ecology of the Cathedral Peak area began in July 1942 and continued during subse quent visits in February and July 1943, and in July,c September and December 1944. In his thesis he gives a checklist of the flora and notes that all the numbers listed are his own collecting numbers. The lowest number is 52 and the highest 1005. The 14 Fungi and 57 Pteridophyta were given separate num bers prefixed by F and P. A number of species are listed without collecting numbers. A total of 548 species was collected.
The majority of the specimens are housed in the Natal University Herbarium (NU), including some spirit material. The lichen specimens are kept in the Bolus Herbarium with a duplicate set in NU. Dupli cates of the angiosperm collections were sent to the National Herbarium, Pretoria (PRE) and the Natal Herbarium, Durban (NH).
1947-50 For this period no collecting registers or re cords of collecting excursions have been located. He must have collected some specimens while stationed at the Royal Natal National Park in 1947. The speci mens that he collected for his study of bryophytes in the vicinity of Oxford must be housed at the Fielding Herbarium (OXF) or at the British Museum (BM).
1949 Mt Kenya July-October 1949 He organized and led the Oxford University Mount Kenya Expedition which went under the aus pices of the University's Exploration Society. The team consisted of four persons, Ted Schelpe and Frank White as the botanists, John Riley, medical student, amateur entomologist and son of the Keeper of Entomology at the British Museum as the zoologist and A. C. Allison (now a professor) as anthropologist. They covered all the vegetational zones of the mountain, getting up to 10 000 ft at the Kathita Ford on the Kathita River and 10 500 ft in the Sagana Valley, according to his collecting regis ter, but 15 000 ft from his observations in the paper on the pteridophyte ecology.
All specimens collected are housed in the British Museum (BM). Ted collected mainly orchids and cryptogams while Frank White concentrated on the montane rain forests of the SE slopes.
Collecting Nos 2373-2922. Total: 550 specimens. 1951Drakensberg 4 November 1952-6 January 1952 During the Oxford University winter vacation he returned to Durban to see his parents and while there made several trips to the Drakensberg to visit his old hunting grounds.
1952 Himalayas 18 June-23 August 1952 After completing his work in the Fielding Herbar ium he joined a climbing party to the Kangra Hima layas. The other members were Ken Snelson of the Sudan Civil Service, who had made the first ascent of Mpongwane in the Natal Drakensberg while on leave from the Royal Navy at the end of World War II, and Jan Graaff who was then lecturing at Cam bridge.
He arranged a small grant from the British Mu seum and sailed to India with a formidable number of large collecting boxes, iron-clad and virtually weatherproof with BM engraved all over them. He arrived with Snelson in Bombay on 18 May 1952 and set off on the Frontier Train to Delhi with 20-30 maunds of kit (1 maund = ±30 kg). From Delhi they caught the Kashmir Mail and then a bus to Manali. Here they joined up with Jan and five Sherpas, 45 porters and 17 mules. His BM boxes were loaded onto mules; one on either side made a full load for a mule.
Then began the long hike up the Beas River Val ley to set up the base camp. En route Ted collected while the others reconnoitred routes over the Parbati. Base camp was finally set up at 12 800 ft in the Dibibokri Nal, upper Kulu Valley. Ted Schelpe's main interest in collecting was ferns and orchids, but he also studied the mosses and lichens and collected all other plants, from the commonest ranunculus and omnipresent primulas to the rare blue meconopsis. Plants were not his only concern, animals of all forms were assiduously collected, prepared and put into the boxes: lizards and beetles, insects attracted to the candles at night, butterflies, and snails, boiled and cleaned. In his diaries he noted that chasing but terflies at this altitude was an energetic occupation; also that when he returned to camp one evening he found the remaining Sherpas had taken up catching butterflies for him. Carpenter bees fascinated him by their frequent visits to the populations of fritillaries.
Most of his collecting was done around the base camp with short sorties together with a Sherpa to places farther afield and at higher altitudes, one such being to the Dibibokri Glacier at 14 000 ft where he noted insects in the snow. He accompanied the others on one major climb, the first ascent of a small peak of 19 200 ft above the Ratiruni Glacier and col lected lichens from the summit rocks. He made a special note of the rapidity with which new species came into flower in the places that he visited several times. He also set out some transects near camp in a lichen survey, mainly of umbilicarias.
Ted was absolutely tireless as a collector even when the weather was bad and always immensely cheerful about his 'chores'. Much of the sojourn in the Kangra covered the very beginning of the mon soon period. Wet rainy squalls were therefore fre quent, no doubt making pressing and drying of specimens extremely difficult.
As Jan Graaff recalls 'Ted really made base camp into a home for us and his welcome after we had been away for a few days on a climbing trip was al ways something we looked forward to. To reward us for helping him change drying papers, Ted used to give continuous, free and fascinating 'nature study lessons' in base camp. We loved them, but were un able to remember a tenth of what he told us'.
Ted left the party towards the end of July and went to the eastern Himalayas in Assam in search of forest plants. He gave the others, who went into Ti bet, a couple of BM boxes just in case they saw something. 'It was then' said Jan Graaff 'that we really appreciated how hard he had been working and that collecting for a BM box was no light task under expedition conditions'. In the course of this visit a number of different vegetation types in the provinces of Shoa and Arussi were studied, and particular attention was paid to the pteridophytes.
He visited Mulu Sayu, the crater lake at Bichoftu and Boli Gorge with the Mugher River, the Entoto Range and to the south Lake Shala, NegheUi, Sheshemana and Cofole. To establish the identity of previously collected material and extend the survey of the distribution of pteridophytes in northern Mozambique for the Flora Zambesiaca an expedition was undertaken with Mr L. C. (Larry) Leach. They entered Mozambique through Mandimba from Malawi and followed the road to Nampula, collecting intensively on Ribaue Mountain and investigating large and small granite domes along the route. On the return journey the party turned south through Lioma to collect on Namuli Mountain (Serra de Gurue). They made 24 new records for Ribaue, 33 for Namuli and increased the number of ferns recorded for the area from 55 to 80 including 2 new species.
Collecting Nos 6700-7095. Total: 395 specimens. 1969New Guinea 20 Sept. & 25 Oct. 1969 Collections were made on the pre-and post-con gress tours held in conjunction with the 6th World Orchid Conference, Sydney. No records of any col lections could be found in his registers. Thailand 24-27 Jan. 1978 After the 9th World Orchid Conference he joined a group of orchidologists including Dr Phillip Cribb of Kew on a collecting expedition in the north-west provinces of Thailand. No records of any collections could be found in his registers.