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At times LJ has received unwarranted criticism as 'the person intent on splitting up 
Eucalyptus and changing all their names'. He greatly regretted that irrelevant 
arguments were brought to bear on a matter that should be settled by experts 
considering evidence and logic, not by numbers of voices. In the event, ideas that 
Eucalyptus should be divided into about 12 genera have not been implemented; he 
and colleagues have considered it necessary at this stage to make only the most 
essential change — removal of a group of 113 species to form Corymbia (Hill & 
Johnson 1995) — reserving judgement on possible further change. 
A notable change of scene came with his appointment in 1962 for 15 months as 
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This 
experience was botanically rewarding but was marred by the miserly policy of the 
State Government towards its employees at that time. In the event, despite Anderson's 
efforts and although such appointments were then normally for two-year periods, 
support for his travel did not extend to his family. The New South Wales Public 
Service Board even suggested that another botanist with no dependants be chosen, 
rather than a man with a wife and four (soon to be five) children. Always strongly 
supportive of Lawrie's career. Merle stoically insisted that he should take up the 
opportunity for valuable overseas experience while the family remained in Sydney. 
At the time of this, his first overseas travel and visits to Europe and North America, 
they did not know that Merle would later work for an airline administration, earning 
opportunities for much overseas travel for all the family. 
Ov'er the decades systematics had not stood still. By the 1950s chromosomal studies 
had come forward as the latest of a series of new technical developments. Both Joyce 
Vickery and Lawrie Johnson encouraged the introduction of these approaches into 
the Herbarium. With the 1960s came the numerical taxonomists, pheneticists with 
their statistical procedures, which Johnson rejected. 
Around this time LJ had taken up mathematics as a serious interest, aided by evening 
courses in modern mathematical concepts, filling a gap in his scientific education. 
(These courses overlapped others in the Russian language, as part of his continuing 
interest in languages worldwide.) The logical processes of mathematics stimulated 
his close analysis of the theoretical basis of the pheneticists' arguments. He expressed 
his reasons for rejecting their approaches m 'Rainbow's End' in 1968, his main 
publication on theoretical systematics, which was widely acknowledged and reprinted 
in the journal Systematic Zoology in 1970. 
Considerations of evolutionary relationships and classification in the prominent 
southern hemisphere families Proteaceae, Myrtaceae and Restionaceae have been 
major areas of research, and 1 was fortunate to collaborate with him on each of these. 
Our first joint work of this type was an uneven partnership; as stated in Johnson & 
Briggs (1963), I provided chromosome counts on Proteaceae while the greater part of 
the morphological data and interpretation was by LJ. Our later collaborative work 
was more evenly divided, but his incisive mind always focused quickly on the 
critical issues to be resolved. He was appreciative of the work of colleagues, but was 
active in studying specimens or anatomical or other preparations to assure himself 
of the substance of the findings and interpretations. When discussing the work he 
would often sum up the data or conclusions in words that needed little modification 
before incorporation into manuscripts. Proteaceae and Myrtaceae were each the 
subject of two major papers and work in both families is now being taken further, by 
colleagues Peter Weston and Peter G. Wilson respectively. 
Typifying LJ's approach, the studies became extremely broad-ranging, extending 
into considering each family in relation to the whole of the flowering plants, to past 
tectonic movements and environments, as well as to pollinators and seed dispersal. 
