Robert Stephen Adamson, botanist, was the son of Professor Robert Adamson. He was educated at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow and continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1902 to 1907, graduating as Master of Arts (MA, 1906) and Doctor of Science (DSc, 1907). He subsequently studied at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, where he was awarded an MA degree in 1912. From then to 1923 he was a lecturer in botany at the University of Manchester, where his interests were mainly in aspects of plant ecology and taxonomy. In the latter year he came to South Africa to take up an appointment as Harry Bolus* Professor of Botany at the University of Cape Town (succeeding Professor David Thoday), a position he held until his retirement in 1950.

Adamson's first contribution to the plant covering of a geographical region was "The vegetation of the South-West region" (Journal of the Botanical Society of South Africa, 1929) followed nine years later by an ambitious volume for the British Empire Vegetation Committee, Vegetation of South Africa (1938). This work, the first book dealing with the vegetation of the whole of South Africa, showed that there were still large gaps in knowledge of the plant covering of the country. In the same year he published his "Notes on the vegetation of the Kamiesberg" (Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa, No. 18, 1938). Both these publications were important contributions to the knowledge of South African plant geography. He subsequently devoted himself mainly to plant taxonomy and published many papers on revisions of various genera in the families Umbelliferae, Campanulaceae and Aizoaceae. Three of his papers dealt with South African fossil plants (1931-1934). In 1934, in collaboration with M. Levyns and R.H. Compton, he started planning a comprehensive Flora of the Cape Peninsula, which was eventually published in 1950.

Adamson was a member of the Royal Society of South Africa and served as its president from 1946 to 1948. In 1926 he became a life member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science and was president of its Section C in 1927. In 1929 he was joint vice president of Section K (which included botany) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met jointly with its South African counterpart. He was a life member of the Cape Natural History Club, served as its president for 1926, and acted as club consultant for flowering plants. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1955 and the next year was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society. He was a person with a shy and retiring disposition and not a keen lecturer, and undertook numerous field trips during his vacations.

List of sources:

British Association for the Advancement of Science. Report..., South Africa, 1929.

Bullock, A.A. Bibliography of South African botany (up to 1951). Pretoria: Department of Agricultural Technical Services, 1978.

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 30, 1937.

How the Cape Natural History Club began. The Cape Naturalist, 1934, Vol. 1(1), pp. 18-20; also, Club consultants, Vol. 1(1), p. 25; Club Roll, Vol. 1(1), pp. 25-28; and Club consultants, 1939, Vol. 1(6), p. 218.

Killick, D.J.B. Presidential Address: Fifty years of plant ecology in South Africa. Journal of the South African Biological Society, 1966, Vol. 7, pp. 11-28.

Obituary: Dr Robert S. Adamson. South African Journal of Science, 1965, Vol. 61, p. 443.

Phillips, H. The University of Cape Town, 1918-1948: The formative years. University of Cape Town, 1993.

Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (SESA). Cape Town: NASOU, 1970-1976.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2021-08-10 08:56:10