Johannes Jacobus Smith (

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

29 June 1867 –

Oegstgeest Oegstgeest () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was in . Etymology The portion ''geest'' in the name refers to the geest lands, which were excavated in the seventeenth cent ...

14 January 1947) (sometimes written as Joannes Jacobus Smith) was a Dutch

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

who, between years 1905 to 1924, crossed the islands of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

(mainly

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

), collecting specimens of plants and describing and cataloguing the flora of these islands. The standard botanical author abbreviation J.J.Sm. is applied to plants described by J.J. Smith. The description of the flowers of the western half of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

(then a Dutch territory) is largely based on his work. He was, next to

Rudolf Schlechter Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids. He went on botanical expeditions in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South and Central America and ...

, the most prolific author on New Guinea

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s. He also described numerous plants from other families, such as

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

and

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

Biography

J.J. Smith sailed to Java in 1891 and became assistant curator at the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens (near

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

), now

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1910. Finally, he was appointed the director of the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg from 1913 till his retirement in 1924. He then returned to Holland, settled in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and later in Oegstgeest, near

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. He continued describing orchids till shortly before his death in 1947, such as naming the Sumatran orchid ''Dendrochilum atjehense'' J.J.Sm. 1943.

Botanical accomplishments

J.J.Smith studied and described hundreds of orchid species, amongst others : *'' Aerides reversa'' J.J.Sm. (1912) *'' Bulbophyllum borneense'' (Schltr.) J.J.Sm. (1912) *'' Bulbophyllum brunendijkii'' J.J.Sm. (1906) *''

Bulbophyllum echinolabium ''Bulbophyllum echinolabium'' (hedgehog-shaped lip bulbophyllum) is a species of orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful an ...

'' J.J.Sm. (1934) *'' Calanthe veratrifolia var. dupliciloba'' J.J.Sm. (1922) *'' Calanthe veratrifolia var. lancipetala'' J.J.Sm. (1930) *'' Cirrhopetalum biflorum'' (Teijsm. & Binn.) J.J.Sm. (1903) *'' Coelogyne salmonicolor var. virescentibus'' J.J.Sm. ex Dakkus (1935) *'' Dendrobium acaciifolium'' J.J.Sm. (1917) *'' Dendrobium acanthophippiiflorum'' J.J.Sm. (1915) *'' Dendrobium agathodaemonis'' J.J.Sm. (1910) *'' Dendrobium asperifolium'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Dendrobium atromarginatum'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium capitellatum'' J.J.Sm. (1906) *'' Dendrobium carstensziense'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium confusum'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Dendrobium ephemerum'' J.J.Sm. (1917) *'' Dendrobium halmaheirense'' J.J.Sm. *'' Dendrobium lichenicola'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium papilioniferum'' J.J.Sm. (1905) *'' Dendrobium papilioniferum var. ephemerum'' J.J.Sm. (1905) *'' Dendrobium quadrialatum'' J.J.Sm. (1922) *'' Paphiopedilum glaucophyllum'' J.J.Smith (1905) *'' Phalaenopsis amboinensis'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Phalaenopsis denevei'' J.J.Sm. (1925) *'' Phalaenopsis fimbriata'' J.J.Sm. (1921) *'' Phalaenopsis fimbriata var. sumatrana'' J.J.Sm. (1932) *'' Phalaenopsis pulcherrima'' J.J.Sm. (1933) *67 '' Dendrochilum'' species *and many more He named several orchid genera: *''

Abdominea ''Robiquetia'', commonly known as pouched orchids, or 寄树兰属 (ji shu lan shu), is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Plants in this genus are epiphytes with long, sometimes branched, fibrous stems, leathery le ...

'' J.J. Sm.1914. *''

Ascocentrum ''Vanda'', abbreviated in the horticultural trade as ''V.,'' is a genus in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. There are about 87 species, and the genus is commonly cultivated for the marketplace. This genus and its allies are considered to be among ...

'' Schlechter ex- J.J. Sm. 1914.

Selected publications

He was the author of many taxonomic papers. *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : ‘Orchidaceae van Ambon. - Batavia, 1905. (in Dutch) *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. Aanteekeningen over orchideeën. - .l. 1920. - 5 dl. (''in Dutch'') *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : The Orchidaceae of Dr. W. Kaudern's expedition to Selebes. - .l. 1926 *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : Enumeration of the Orchidaceae of Sumatra and neighbouring islands. - Dahlem bei Berlin, 1933. *Smith, J.J. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Saprophyten Javas. XII-XIV: Burmannia tuberosa

Becc. Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, particularly New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. His author abbrevi ...

Leiden.. 102-138 pp. 16 lithogr. plts. *Koorders, S.H. & J.J.Smith. Ericacea - Gentianaceae - Corsiaceae - Polugalaceae. Leiden, 1912. 14 pp. 46 lithogr. plts. *Koorders, Sijfert Hendrik, Theodoric Valeton & Johannes Jacobus Smith: Bijdrage no. 1 13tot de kennis der boomsoorten op Java. Additamenta ad cognitionem Florae javanicae … Batavia & ‘s Gravenhage, G. Kolff, 1894–1914, 13 volumes (J.J.Smith is the sole author of volume 12 and of volume 13 in collaboration with Theodoric Valeton) *J.J. Smith et al. - 's Lands Plantentuin Buitenzorg. Gedenkschrift ter gelegenheid van het honderdjarig bestaan op 18 mei 1917. Eerste gedeelte. (Buitenzorg, 1917) (''in Dutch'') *J.J. Smith - Geïllustreerde gids voor 's Lands Plantentuin Buitenzorg pp 60 pb Buitenzorg, zj ±1925 (''in Dutch'')

Reference works

*Blumea, Suppl. 1, SMITH vol., 1937, with dedications, photographs, etc
Naturalis
*D. F. van Slooten: ''Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg'' sér. 3, vol. 14, 1937, p. 99–114, incl. bibliogr. & portr
Internet Archive
*Wie is dat? ed. 3-4; Orchideeën, June 1942, 6 pp (''in Dutch'') *Bull. Bot. Gard. Buitenzorg III, 17, 1948, p. 381-382 *Orchideeën, March 1949, p. 23-31 + portr. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Johannes Jacobus 1867 births 1947 deaths 19th-century Dutch botanists 20th-century Dutch botanists Scientists from Antwerp