Robert Allen Rolfe (1855, Wilford, Nottinghamshire – 1921, Richmond,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. W ...

) was an English botanist specialising in the study of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s. For a time he worked in the gardens at

Welbeck Abbey Welbeck Abbey in the Dukeries in North Nottinghamshire was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is one ...

. He entered Kew in 1879 and became second assistant. He was the first curator of the orchid

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, founded the magazine ''

The Orchid Review ''The Orchid Review'', published quarterly by the Royal Horticultural Society, is a magazine 'dedicated to the celebration and deeper understanding of orchids'. It is the world's oldest existing periodical devoted to orchids and each issue featu ...

'', and published many papers on hybrids of different species of orchids. The genus '' Allenrolfea'' of

amaranth ''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely pack ...

s was named after him by

Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) was a German botanist. Biography Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig. An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled ''Pocket Fauna of Leipzig''. Between 1863 and 1866 he ...

. Rolfe was buried in

Richmond Cemetery Richmond Cemetery is a cemetery on Lower Grove Road in Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. The cemetery opened in 1786 on a plot of land granted by an Act of Parliament the previous year. The cemetery has been expand ...

Works

Rolfe, Robert Allen (1883). "On the Selagineæ described by Linnæus, Bergius, Linnæus, fil., and Thunberg." Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 20(129): 338–358. Rolfe, Robert Allen (1884). "On Hyalocalyx, a new Genus of Turneraceæ from Madagascar." Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany 21(134): 256–258. Rolfe, Robert Allen (1884). "On the Flora of the Philippine Islands, and its probable Derivation." Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 21(135): 283–316. Rolfe, Robert Allen (1887). On Bigeneric Orchid Hybrids. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 24(160): 156–170. Rolfe, Robert Allen (1889). A Morphological and Systematic Review of the Apostasieæ. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 25(171): 211–243. Rolfe, Robert Allen & Hurst, Charles Chamberlain (1909). The Orchid Stud-Book: An Enumeration of Hybrid Orchids of Artificial Origin, with their parents, raisers, date of first flowering, references to descriptions and figures, and synonymy. With an historical introduction and 120 figures and a chapter on hybridising and raising orchids from seed. Frank Leslie & Co.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolfe, Robert Allen 20th-century British botanists Orchidologists 1855 births 1921 deaths Burials at Richmond Cemetery 19th-century British botanists Botanists active in Kew Gardens

Works

See also

References