Obituary of Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink

Obituary of Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink, by J.F. Veldkamp

BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK f., Reinier Cornelis (Panjinangan, Java, Indonesia, 11 September 1911 - Leiden, 1 May 1987).

Fl. Mal. I, 1 (1950) 32, photo; M. JACOBS, Fl. Mal. Bull. 29 (1976) 2532-2535, C. KALKMAN, Blumea 23 (1976) 1, photo.

With the death of Rein the last of the great men in Malesian plant lore has gone: first Hildebrand, then Nedi in Bogor, Airy Shaw in Kew, Van Steenis in Leiden. Their knowledge of all aspects of the science obtained during scores of years of experience both in the field and the herbarium was unsurpassed, and most of it is lost now.

At the time of Rein's retirement two laudatory articles were published by Jacobs and Kalkman and little can re added to this to describe him. Then it had been hoped that he would be able to write up his various manuscripts, e.g. on Argostemma and Neonauclea, but unfortunately he soon fell victim to a renal failure for which he had to be dialyzed first once, later twice a week. This took most of his energy away.

Yet, whenever possible, he tried to come to the Rijksherbarium, e.g. to collaborate with Van Steenis to pre-identify the incoming material in their own inimitable way: both enveloped in clouds of cigar smoke (No Smoking sings? Can't apply to us.). One could hardly pick up their art and write labels at the same time. The wrappers had hardly been opened or in concord a name was given, something like this '27135? Litsea. 27136? Ficus. 27137? Drypetes. No Aporosa, the leaf has pits. 27138? Garcinia, see the lines in the blade. 27139? Ageratum conyzoides, damn, what idiot wants to collect such rubbish (guess, who said that). 27140? Morinda.!, and so on for hours. The only time for a breather was when the two bonzes disagreed, and then the really difficult cases were for Rein to solve. Van Steenis used to say: 'Rein is such a tenacious bastard, he keeps at it until he's got it', and indeed Rein rarely disappointed him, even when it took days. Many of their joint papers were the result of attempts to clear enigmatic cases. Rein gladly let Van Steenis, the prolific writer, do the job further. This was rather typical of him: on one hand the encyclopedic memory, on the other hand an inability to write things down.

He was a modest man, as is shown by the fact that he never bothered to keep a full list of his publications, or even reprints of them, so the following bibliography may well be incomplete. Several species were named af ter him, again, he kept little record of them. I can only think of Bulbophyllum bakhuizenii Steen. (Orchidaceae), Chrysophyllum bakhuizenii Royen, Dissochaeta bakhuizenii Veldk. (Melastomataceae), Tapeinosperma reinianum Jacobs (Myrsinaceae), but there must be quite a few more.

He left behind a wife, Wil, and two sons, Rein and Dick. We wish them much strength to bear the loss of a fine husband and father.

Bibliography

A great many families were worked up for C.A. BACKER, Nooduitgave van de Beknopte Flora van Java (1940-1961): Apocynaceae, Acaceae, Araliaceae (with S.J. VAN OOSTSTROOM), Asclepiadaceae, Commelinaceae, Connaraceae, Cyclanthaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Flagellariaceae, Gesneriaceae, Haemodoraceae, Hypoxidaceae, Juglandaceae, Lemnaceae, Lentibulariaceae, Loganiaceae, Marantaceae, Melastomataceae, Myoporaceae, Oleaceae (with G.J.H. AMSHOFF), Orobanchaceae, Palmae, Philesiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Rubiaceae, Rutaceae, Simaroubaceae, Tecophilaeaceae, Urticaceae, Valerianaceae, Velloziaceae, Zingiberaceae. - J.F .Veldkamp.