Australian 



Natural History 



Medallion 

 1971 



by 



\l \i<(,\m I ( i Cokkii. K 



Cliff Beaugleholc was horn al Gorae 

 West, near Portland, in 1920 He was 

 educated at the nearby counlry school 

 and finally took over his parents' 

 mixed farm, where he lived until mov- 

 ing to Portland in 1968. 



His interest in nature was awakened 

 hy his upbringing and everyday con- 

 lacts with the bush around him. Bj 

 the time he left school he had a good 

 knowledge of nature in his immediate 

 environment. At the age of ten. he 

 knew and could name scientifically, 

 about sixty species of orchids from 

 his district, and began sending speci- 

 mens to the late W.~H. Nicholh. The 

 years 1941 and 1942 were outstanding 

 orchid seasons, during which Cliff dis- 

 covered two new species. Praso- 

 phyllum beauglehotei and P. diversi- 

 f lot ion. In 1949 he discovered 

 Ptemstylis tenuissima, another new 

 species. 



Soon afer leaving school he began 

 a botanical survey of the Portland 

 area, in which eventually seven 

 hundred and seventy species were 



344 



listed, an increase ol over three 

 hundred to the already known Horn 

 the district. From the very beginning 

 his collections were carefully labelled 

 and preserved, and his herbarium now 

 is among the largest private collections 

 in the country. Over the yeais its re 

 sources have been made freely avail- 

 able lo scientists all over Australia, 

 and overseas. He has also made sub- 

 stantial donations from it lo the 

 reference sets of several field 

 Naturalist Clubs. His sen ices as .i 

 voluntary collector to the Melbourne 

 Herbarium were soon recognised, and 

 he was aeeoided the rare privilege "I 

 being given a stock of official labels 

 on which lo enler d.it.i of e\erv speci- 

 men donated. 



Cliff's interest in entomology. Kid 

 particularly in bees, seems a logical 

 sequence for a farmer and naturalist 

 already deeply involved in botany. 

 Early in 1950 he began an assoCwtjon 

 with the late Tarlton Raymcnt, which 

 lasted until the hitter's illness and 

 death in 1956. During this period 



Vict. Nal. Vol. 88 



