REFERENCES

Cortesi, F. (1904). Una nuova Ophrys ibrida: X Ophrys grampini (0. aranifera X tenthredinifera). Annuli di Botanica (Roma) 1: 359-361.

Rossi, W. & Lippolis, P. (1984). Native orchids in Rome. Webbia 38: 81 1-814.

ROBERT ALLEN ROLFE (1855-1921)

Alec M. Pridgeon

January 1993 marks the centenary of the founding of The Orchid Review, the world’s oldest journal devoted exclusively to orchids and their cultivation. For a century Great Britain and the rest ofthe world have looked to The Orchid Review for publication of new species and hybrids, the latest in cultivation techniques and awards, and general news in the orchid community. How appropriate that at this milestone (which few journals ever see) the Royal Horticultural Society will now assume responsibility for publishing The Orchid Review, perhaps for the next hundred years and beyond.

We would probably have little to celebrate now had it not been for the persistent and diligent efforts of its founding editor, Robert Allen Rolfe, who despite his deafness, surmounted problems ofbureaucracy and discrimination that would have daunted a person of sounder faculties. In his time this quiet, unassuming man was not only the editor and primary author of a demanding monthly journal for 28 years but also the British authority on orchids in his post as Assistant in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for more than 40 years.

Rolfe was born at Ruddington, near Nottingham, on 12 May 1855. We know little about his family and early life, only that he worked in the Duke ofportland’s gardens at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, before coming to Kew on 7 April 1879 as a gardener. The following year he competed with eight others in Civil Service Examinations in handwriting, orthography, arithmetic, elements of systematic and structural botany, and ‘naming of plants by the British Flora’. Achieving the highest scores, he was certified by the Civil Service Commission on 3 July 1880 and commenced his duties as Second Assistant in the Herbarium three days later. I t is interesting to note the salary level of Second Assistant at the time - L100 per annum, rising by annual increments of210 to L150.

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Robert Rolfe

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Rolfe’s first paper, on oak galls, appeared in the Entomologist in 188 1, the same year that he married Miss Caroline Berkeley Thatcher of Clifton and Cheddar. They were later to occupy the house at 12 Lawn Crescent, Kew. Observing the promise and perseverance of young Rolfe, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, then Director of Kew Gardens, encouraged him to focus on orchid taxonomy. His earliest major orchid paper, ‘Revision of the Genus Phalaenopsis’, appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1886. Three years later, the first major blow to his career occurred with the death of the great German orchid taxonomist, H. G. Reichenbach. Reichenbach stipulated in his will that his Herbarium was to remain sealed for the 25 years following his death, perhaps only to spite Rolfe (Cribb in Stewart, 1992). As a result, Rolfe’s orchid taxonomic work was crippled: he had no idea whether the flood ofnew species arrivingon British shores had already been described by Reichenbach and so had to work blindly with the inevitable publication of synonyms.

In December 1892, the notice ofa new periodical appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle - The Orchid Review - to be edited by R. A. Rolfe and Frank Leslie and devoted exclusively to orchidology. I t would be priced at 1s monthly, 12s per annutn, post free. The then Director of Kew Gardens and son-in-law of Hooker, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, noticed the advertisement and promptly sent a memorandum to Rolfe, writing ‘I observe in the Gardeners’ Chronicle an announcement ofa new periodical ofwhich you are to be among the Editors. I must draw your attention to the fact that my permission has not been granted’ (Herbarium Correspondence, 17 December 1892). Thiselton-Dyer further sent a memorandum to the Keeper of the Herbarium three days later: ‘Please inform Mr. Rolfe that I absolutely prohibit his engaging in any enterprise’ (Herb. Corresp., 20 December 1892). The rationale for this rather autocratic pronouncement was that Kew staffwere prohibited from making use of official material, specimens, or descriptions for private work without previous permission of the Director.

Rolfe’s reply to the Director (Herb. Corresp., 18 December 1892) not only justifies his actions but asserts the raison d ’ h e of The Orchid Review:

My name is connected with the work on the express condition that no reference is made to my official position, and nothing butpublic [his emphasis] information used.

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The scheme is a thoroughly matured one. An independent gentleman has placed a sum of money at the disposal of the work, on the condition that it be kept absolutely independent of trade domination, and that his name is not mentioned in any way . . .

The proposal has really arisen from a growing feeling that information with regard to orchids is too scattered, and the influence of the trade too dominant. The scheme has the full support of a number of amateurs including Sir Trevor Lawrence, and Baron Schroder [sic].

Finally, presumably on being told of the Director’s decision by the Keeper, Rolfe addressed the Director: ‘As a result ofyour reply to my letter, I have withdrawn my name from the Orchid Review’ (Herb. Corresp., 21 December 1892). Indeed in the first few issues Rolfe’s name did not appear as Editor, but by 1894 he was listed as such, and nothing more was said about a possible conflict of interest until Thiselton-Dyer retired in 1905.

From its very first issue The Orchid Review was popular and received letters ofpraise and support from British orchid-growers. On page 1, Rolfe (unsigned) outlined the different features that thejournal would offer monthly: descriptions ofnew species oforchids, hybrids, profiles ofinteresting collections such as the Burford collection, orchid culture with a calendar of operations, historical articles, reports on monthly meetings and exhibitions, and other notes on orchids. One hundred years later all of these types of articles are still appearing in The Orchid Review and other international orchid journals.

Rolfe’s output in the Herbarium was prolific, probably facilitated by his deafness, which he accepted with grace and good humour. He monographed Orchidaceae (‘Orchideae’) for volume 7 ofthe Flora of TropicalAfrica (1898), for volume 5, sect. 3, ofFlora Capensis (1913), and for Index Florae Sinensis. With Charles Chamberlain Hurst he wrote The Orchid Stud-Book: A n Enumeration o f Hybrid Orchids o f Artijicial Origin. With Their Parents. Raisers, Date o f First Flowerings, References to Descriptions and Figures, and Synonymy ( 1909), which became the foundation for Sander’s List of Orchid Hybrids. He published hundreds of new orchid species in Kew Bulletin, the Gardeners’ Chronicle, The Orchid Review and elsewhere and described such genera as Ancistrochilus, Cymbidiella, Dimorphorchis and Neomo- orea, all in current usage. I n addition he wrote descriptions for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine from 1905, edited the English edition of

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Lindenia, and helped to prepare the second series of Reichenbachia. Although orchids were his primary interest, he also monographed

Myoporinaceae and Selaginaceae for the African floras and published on Rosa and Rubus.

Despite his prolific output, Rolfe was passed over for promotion to First Assistant in the Herbarium until 1914. For years he had not complained, and it was not until his appeal of 6 November 1909 (Herb. Corresp.) that he discovered the reason. At the bottom of Rolfe’s letter to then Director, Lieut.-Col. David Prain, Prain wrote: ‘I have seen Mr. Rolfe today [8 November 19091 and explained to him that what he looks on as “passing over” him is a circumstance that implies no reflection on his ability or industry but one that follows from the physical defect due to his deafness’. Surely hurt by the news, Rolfe responded to Prain: ‘The unfortunate circumstance which stood in the way ofmy promotion recently does not incapacitate me for any special work and may even help me to concentrate my attention uponit’ (Herb.Corresp.,9November 1909). By 1914,attheageof59 and after 34years ofservice, Rolfe had still not attained the maximum salary of Second Class Assistant. Sir David Prain, having been knighted in 1912 (Turrill, 1959), made an appeal on Rolfe’s behalf with the result that Rolfe finally was promoted on 6 November 1914.

Rolfe was scheduled toretireon 12 May 1920, his 65th birthday but was granted a year’s extension. During this extension he was invited by C. W. Powell (Herb. Corresp., 11 June 1920) to come to Chiriqui, Panama, which would be his very first expedition to the tropics. Otto Stapf, Keeper of the Herbarium, advised Prain (Herb. Corresp., 13 November 1920) that Rolfe’s ‘time would be better employed in the Herbarium’, and Prain discouraged Rolfe from travelling to Panama because he was then on extension of service (Herb. Corresp., 22 November 1920). A second extension of service was not granted to Rolfe by the Ministry ofAgriculture and Fisheries, so his service was to be terminated on 12 May 1921.

At the same time he was planning the Panama trip he was also making final preparations for a trip to Vienna to study the Reichenbach Herbarium at last. Although the 25-year closure of the Herbarium had expired in 19 14, the war and its aftermath made such a visit impossible. After Stapfand Prain deliberated on whether Rolfe could complete the project before his extensionofserviceexpired, they agreed that Rolfe could travel to Vienna if not Panama.

But Rolfe was never to see either of these dreams fulfilled. He was

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admitted to hospital in February 192 1, the cause ofhis illness obscure, and sent for X-rays. Tests revealed a cerebral tumour. He died on 13 April 192 1, survived by his wife, one daughter, and three sons. On 18 April he was laid to rest in Richmond Cemetery beneath a pall of spectacular orchids:

Although some aspects of Rolfe’s life and career are sad, the honours he received symbolise the esteem in which his peers and orchid-growers everywhere held him. He was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society in 1885 and an Honorary Fellow and Member of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1906. He received the Gold Medal of L’Academie Internationale de Botanique in 191 7 , and both the Gold Medal of the Veitch Memorial Trust Fund and the Victoria Medal ofHonour from the RHS in 192 1.

Of all the obituaries published about Rolfe, the one written by his colleague, Otto Stapf, for The Orchid Review best summarizes his devotion to that journal, now 100 years old: ‘For was it not his own creation and almost his personification? For twenty-eight years it had lived through him a remarkably regular, sober and useful life, he the soul, the heart, and the main feeder ofit. When his heart stood still, it seemed as if the life of this, his spoiled child, must come to an end too; but souls live on and they long for reincarnation’. Stapf s words were prophetic, because with Rolfe’s death The Orchid Review ‘died’ also, ceasing publication for six months before being reincarnated under new editorship to satisfy the needs oforchid growers everwhere, both then and now.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I thank Mrs Cheryl Piggott of the Kew Library Archives for allowing access to Herbarium Correspondence and Mr Nick Parsons of the Richmond Cemetery Office for showing me the grave site of Robert Allen Rolfe and Caroline Rolfe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anon. (1912). Notable orchidists. Journal of Horticulture and Home Farmer

Anon. (1921). Miscellaneous notes. Kew Bulletin 1921: 123-127. Anon. (1921). Robert Allen Rolfe. Gardeners’ Chronicle 69: 74, 204. Stapf, 0. (1921). The Late Robert Allen Rolfe. Orchid Review 29: 58. - (1921). Robert Allen Rolfe. Proceedings of the Linnean Society

Stewart, J. [ed.]. (1992). Orchids at Kew. HMSO/RBG Kew, London. Turrill, W. B. (1959). The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Herbert Jenkins,

65: 467.

1917-21: 52-53.

London.

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