Johannes Jacobus Smith

Johannes Jacobus Smith (Antwerp 29 June 1867 – Oegstgeest 14 January 1947) (sometimes written as Joannes Jacobus Smith) was a Dutch botanist who, between years 1905 to 1924, crossed the islands of the Dutch East Indies (mainly Java), collecting specimens of plants and describing and cataloguing the flora of these islands. The standard botanical author abbreviation J.J.Sm. is applied to plants described by J.J. Smith.

The description of the flowers of the western half of New Guinea (then a Dutch territory) is largely based on his work. He was, next to Rudolf Schlechter, the most prolific author on New Guinea orchids. He also described numerous plants from other families, such as Ericaceae and Euphorbiaceae.

Biography

J.J. Smith sailed to Java in 1891 and became assistant curator at the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens (near Batavia), now Bogor. He made several expeditions in Java, Celebes (now Sulawesi), the Ambon Islands and the Moluccas. In 1905 he was promoted to assistant of the herbarium. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. degree at the Utrecht University in 1910. Finally, he was appointed the director of the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg from 1913 till his retirement in 1924. He then returned to Holland, settled in Utrecht and later in Oegstgeest, near Leiden. He continued describing orchids till shortly before his death in 1947, such as naming the Sumatran orchid Dendrochilum atjehense J.J.Sm. 1943.

Botanical accomplishments

J.J.Smith studied and described hundreds of orchid species, amongst others :

He named several orchid genera:

Selected publications

He was the author of many taxonomic papers.

Reference works

  1. ↑ IPNI.  J.J.Sm.
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