Briggs, LA.S. Johnson — a botanical career 
515 
Plate tectonics, still doubted by some outspoken geologists when Johnson & Briggs 
(1963) was completed, had become the accepted wisdom by 1975, giving new 
significance to the interpretation of southern hemisphere distributions. Hypotheses 
were developed of the past history of the Proteaceae, in relation to the land-masses 
on which they occur (Johnson & Briggs 1975), and have served as a basis for many 
subsequent discussions of that family and of data from a range of disciplines. 
Consideration of inflorescence structures in Myrtaceae (Briggs & Johnson 1979) led 
to an assessment, revision and summary of the subfamily, tribal and generic 
classification of this large family, and also to a substantial review of the terms and 
concepts used in analysing and comparing inflorescences generally. 
Typically also, as in much of Johnson's work, these papers are concise summaries of 
a great deal of information that was not presented in detail but that was rigorously 
compiled and critically assessed. Some of the conclusions, and the evidence on 
which they were based, have subsequently been overlooked at times because they 
have appeared only in this condensed style. For example, to illustrate and describe 
in detail all the pericarps of fruits of Proteaceae that were sectioned could have been 
useful, but it would have vastly increased the work. This was not feasible while 
meeting deadlines, with little technical assistance, and especially since most research 
was done after 6 pm when administrative matters could be set aside by both those 
involved. The forbearance of Merle Johnson with these long hours must be applauded. 
Work on Restionaceae, the third of these 'old southern families' (Johnson & Briggs 
1981), arose out of earlier work for the Flora of Nezu South Wales in the 1960s that 
showed that the generic classification was highly unsatisfactory. Other priorities 
slowed the study of this family and it remains in the 1990s an active interest, and 
was greatly aided by the technical help of Carolyn Porter and DNA sequencing 
by Simon Gilmore. 
The second of the Proteaceae papers (Johnson & Briggs 1975) also outlined a 
phylogenetic approach to classification and to determining evolutionary relationships. 
This was independent of Hennigian cladistics but based on somewhat similar thinking, 
linking groups only on apomorphies. Around this time, with the assistance of his 
oldest son, Christopher, this procedure was expressed in their computer program 
CLAX. This was based on an algorithm mirroring the procedures of a taxonomist by 
grouping together those taxa (OTU's) with most synapomorphies in common and 
then continuing, in a top-down procedure, to the less closely associated taxa with 
fewer apomorphies. Before the procedure was computerised LJ and I generated trees, 
especially in Myrtales, through manual calculation according to this algorithm, 
considering near-minimal groupings as well as minimals at all stages in tree-generation. 
The speed and ease of computerised programs now available contrasts wdth the long 
days and evenings of manual computation. Because of other competing priorities, 
Chris and LJ did not succeed in fully de-bugging the computer version of CLAX, and 
now that PAUP with its many options (Swofford 1990) is conveniently available LJ has 
no intention of proceeding further with CLAX. While using cladistic procedures he 
stresses the need to consider carefully the biological implications of character changes 
and believes that parsimony should not over-rule such considerations. 
A further aspect of Johnson's botanical contribution should be mentioned, his help 
to less experienced botanists who found him a wise advisor and friend. A very large 
number of publications have acknowledged his constructive comment or discussion 
with him. Botanists working with him gained valuable insights from his approach. 
Mostly this applied to younger botanists, but he guided a much older colleague 
when Obed Evans, formerly head of botanical technical staff at the University of 
Sydney, joined the Herbarium staff as a part-time botanist. Johnson and Evans worked 
on several monocot families including Cyperaceae, a project on which Karen Wilson 
