241 



HAERY BOLUS 

 (1834-1910). 



The name of Harry Bolus will always be inseparably con- 

 nected with South African botany, and in his death that country 

 which he was wont to call his " very good and kind stepmother " 

 mourns one of the truest-hearted, most ardent, and ablest of her 

 sons — one whose whole life was characterized by an untiring 

 search after truth and a patient industry in finishing well what 

 he had undertaken to do. 



Born at Nottingham in 1834, it was in 1850 that, apprenticed 

 to a merchant, he arrived at the Cape, a poor boy with only fifty 

 shillings in his pocket, but with plenty of health and spirits, and 

 a fairly good education for those times. Soon after his arrival 

 one of the fearful Kafir wars broke out, and he was among the 

 Grahamstown volunteers who went to the front in those terrible 

 days. 



Bolus began the study of botany in 1864, on the death of his 

 first child, hoping it would prove a means of alleviating his grief. 

 It was at this time that he first corresponded with Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, whose kindly sympathy, encouragement, and help meant 

 much to him during the whole of his life. In those early years 

 he collected vigorously in the neighbourhood of Graaff Reinet 

 (where he lived for fifteen years), Murraysburg, and Somerset 

 East, scaling the highest mountains in search of their floral 

 treasures, scarcely knowing what fatigue meant, and returning 

 home to make careful drawings and descriptions of his interesting 

 finds. He soon made the acquaintance of the late Dr. MacOwan, 

 who was at that time teaching in Somerset East, and a few years 

 later began the friendship with Professor Guthrie, which continued 

 on terms of the closest intimacy until the latter's death in 1899. 

 He always looked back upon the life at Graaff Reinet with great 

 affection. His work there was of a varied character ; he was 

 Secretary to an Insurance and Trust Company, writing for and 

 actually printing the Graaff Reinet Herald, and at one period 

 farming and counting the sheep as they left their kraals in the 

 morning and returned in the evening. There, too, he was fortu- 

 nate enough to find himself among musical friends, with w^hom 

 he could share his love of that art, the singing of the old glees and 

 madrigals affording him pleasure to the last. 



In 1874 he came to Cape Town to join his brother as a broker. 

 The work was at first most distasteful and difficult, but its very 

 difficulties called out the fighting spirit in him, and he fought 

 hard until he completely overcame. Twenty years later, having 

 saved sufficient for his own and the wants of all those in any way 

 dependent upon him, he retired from business, and was able to 

 devote more time to his favourite study. 



The delight of Bolus at the ricli flora of the Western Province 

 was unbounded, and he became specially interested in Orchids. 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 49. [August, 1911. j t 



