Thomas Robertson Sim
Encyclopedia
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, Scotland - 23 July 1938 Durban, Natal was a botanist, bryologist, botanical artist and Conservator of Forests in Natal, best known for his extremely detailed book The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope
The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope
The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, is a botanical reference book written and illustrated by Thomas Robertson Sim, and published in 1907 by Taylor & Henderson of Aberdeen...
which appeared in 1907. He was the son of John Sim (1824-1901), a noted bryologist
Bryology
Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes . Bryophytes were first studied in detail in the 18th century...
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Education and career
Attended Old AberdeenOld Aberdeen
Old Aberdeen is part of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891...
grammar school until 1873 and in 1874 was given special tuition at Marischal College
Marischal College
Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events...
, University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
. In that same year he served as apprentice gardener in the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
's gardens in Chiswick. In 1878 he was appointed to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew where he received a training in botany under Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
. In 1879 he worked for a year in the Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
botanic gardens in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here he was influenced by Asa Gray
Asa Gray
-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....
and George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale was an American botanist, born at Saco, Maine. He graduated at Amherst College in 1860 and at Harvard Medical School in 1863, after which he practiced at Portland, Me., until 1867; became professor of natural science and applied chemistry at Bowdoin; and at Harvard was...
. Subsequently he worked for a year in the garden of Colonel Peabody of Milton, Massachusetts. Returning to Scotland in 1881, he assisted his father on the farm at Inchmark from 1884-1888.
In 1889 he took up the post of curator of the King William's Town
King William's Town
King William's Town is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The town is about 40 minutes' motorway drive WNW of the Indian Ocean port of East London...
botanical garden. In September 1894 he became a Government Forester with the Cape Forestry Department and started work at Fort Cunynghame Plantation near Döhne
Döhne
Döhne is a South African agricultural research station 6 kilometers north of Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape. It is noted for having developed the Döhne Merino from Peppin Merino ewes and German mutton merino sires in 1939. The program bred for high fertility, rapid lamb growth and fine wool...
. Within a few months he was promoted to Superintendent of Plantations in the Eastern Conservancy, and by 1898 to District Forest Officer with headquarters at King William's Town.
In 1902 he established a forest department in Natal and became its first Conservator of Forests in 1903, with headquarters in Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838, and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its "purist" Zulu name is umGungundlovu, and this is the name used for the district municipality...
. In 1907 he travelled to London as representative of the South African Products Exhibition. In 1908 he was asked to visit Portuguese East Africa
Portuguese East Africa
Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
and later wrote a report on forest utilisation, which appeared as Forest Flora and Forest Resources of Portuguese East Africa, which was lavishly illustrated with his own line drawings.
In 1908 he ventured into the commercial world by setting up a nursery in Pietermaritzburg, and advising on tree planting and large-scale afforestation, also venturing into the timber and wattle-growing industries, being a founder member of the Wattle Growers' Association and Cedara College of Agriculture
Cedara College of Agriculture
Cedara College of Agriculture is an agricultural college and research station near Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, founded partly by Thomas Robertson Sim. The foundation stone of the "School of Agriculture and Forestry" was laid on 28 April 1905...
.
He was elected F.L.S., F.R.H.S. and F.R.S.S.Afr. and in 1919 received an honorary D.Sc. from the University of South Africa
University of South Africa
The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
. He was also a constant supporter of the S.Afr.Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, contributing regularly to their journal. Attending one of their meetings in Rhodesia in 1920, he suffered stroke which left him partially paralysed, but despite the handicap, continued with his work. He relinquished all his business interests and devoted all his time to finishing his opus magnum, a comprehensive study of trees in Southern Africa up to the Zambesi and Cunene Rivers. Death intervened and the unfinished manuscript is still kept at the National Botanical Research Institute
National Botanical Research Institute
National Botanical Research Institute is a research institute of CSIR in Lucknow. It is engaged in the field of taxonomy and modern biology.-History:...
in Pretoria, which also houses his library.
Sim is commemorated in Simia, a genus of liverworts and numerous specific names.
Thomas Robertson Sim should not be confused with the agronomist James Taylor Robertson Sim (1903-1968), who was the son of James Sim, for many years a forestry officer and TR Sim's brother.
This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Sim when citing
Author citation (botany)
In botanical nomenclature, author citation refers to citing the person who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...
a botanical name
Botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants...
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Publications
- Handbook of the Ferns of KaffrariaKaffrariaKaffraria was the descriptive name given to the southeast part of what is today the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Kaffraria, i.e. the land of the Kaffirs, is no longer an official designation...
(Aberdeen 1891) - The Ferns of South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
(Cape Town 1892) - Sketch and Checklist of the Flora of KaffrariaKaffrariaKaffraria was the descriptive name given to the southeast part of what is today the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Kaffraria, i.e. the land of the Kaffirs, is no longer an official designation...
(Cape Town 1894) - Botanical Observations on the Forests of Eastern Pondoland
- Recent Information concerning South African Ferns and their distribution (1906)
- The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good HopeThe Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good HopeThe Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, is a botanical reference book written and illustrated by Thomas Robertson Sim, and published in 1907 by Taylor & Henderson of Aberdeen...
(Taylor & Henderson, Aberdeen 1907) - Forest Flora and Forest Resources of Portuguese East AfricaPortuguese East AfricaMozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
(Aberdeen 1909) - The Ferns of South Africa (enlarged 2nd edition) (Cambridge 1915)
- Handbook of the BryophytaBryophyteBryophyte is a traditional name used to refer to all embryophytes that do not have true vascular tissue and are therefore called 'non-vascular plants'. Some bryophytes do have specialized tissues for the transport of water; however since these do not contain lignin, they are not considered to be...
of South Africa (1916) - Flowering Trees and Shrubs for use in South Africa (Dept of Mines & Industries Mem No.3 Pretoria 1921)
- The Bryophyta of South Africa (Trans. Roy. Soc. S.Afr. 1926)
- Tree-planting in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg 1927)
- Tree-planting in Natal
Sources
- Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa Mary Gunn & LE Codd (Balkema 1981)