RobbinsRG

Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Robbins, Ross Gordon

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

Born: 1919, Wanganui, New Zealand.

career:

Was educated in New Zealand (M.Sc. Botany 1950); Ph.D. of the University of New Zealand in 1957, on a thesis on the New Zealand Forest History. From 1942-45 with the New Zeal. Army Forces in the Middle East; 1951-56 University Lecturer in Botany, mostly in New Zealand, but two years in Jamaica (1951-52); 1957-60 Plant Ecologist C.S.I.R.O. New Guinea Land Surveys; 1961-66 Research Fellow in Biogeography, Australian National University; for seven months acting as the first curator of the Canberra Botanic Gardens; in 1966 appointed Professor in Botany in the new university at Port Moresby, Papua, taking up the post in July 1967; in Aug. 1970 he accepted an appointment teaching biogeography at Canberra University.

His major interests are phytogeography and rain-forest ecology in the Pacific. About 1970 he resigned and still lives in Australia.

Some plants, including Dimorphantera robbinsii Sleumer and Barbula robbinsii Bartr. have been named in his honour.

Collecting localities:

1957. E. New Guinea:¹Eastern and Western Highlands (Goroka-Mt Hagen area) incl. Mt Wilhelm, Mt Hagen, and Mt Giluwe (June-Oct.).-1958. Lower Ramu Valley, incl. Adelbert Ranges (July-Oct.); W. Java (Dec.).-1959. E. New Guinea: Lower Sepik Valley, incl. Prince Alexander Range (June-Oct.).-1960. Western Highlands, Wabag area (June-Sept.).²-1963. In Oct.-Nov. collecting trip in N. Thailand, and proceeding to Malaya.³-1965. Philippines. Mindanao: slopes Mt Talomo (Oct. 2), lower slopes Mt Apo (6), side ridge Mt Apo (c. 2000 m) (7), Mt Talomo (c. 1400 m) (11); Luzon: Mt Pulog (c. 2700 m) (24-25), reaching all the summits.

collections:

End 1961 totalling from 1-3430; duplicates infrequent. In Herb. Lae [LAE], Leiden [L], etc. This collection includes some 750 mosses,⁴ of which a small set from Java. The CSIRO numbers include a few dozen Queensland rain-forest plants. Thailand collection in ? Herb. Canberra [CANB]; dupl. (nos 3536-3689) in Bangkok [BKF]; mosses also at Leiden [L] (from Malaya 3690-3709). Some 50 nos from the Philippines sent to Leiden [L] of which sterile material thrown away. His collections include numbers from New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Fiji, Solomons, Java, Malaya, New Zealand, U.S.A., Canada, and Hawaii.

literature:

(1) R.G. Robbins: ‘Montane formations in the Central Highlands of New Guinea’ (Proc. Symp. Humid Trop. Veg. Tjiawi 1958, 1961, p. 176-195, map); ‘The montane vegetation of New Guinea’ (Tuatara 8, 1961, p. 121-134); ‘The vegetation of New Guinea’ (Austr. Tern 1, 1961, p. 21-32); H.A. Haantjes, R.G. Robbins c.s.: ‘Lands of the Goroka-Mount Hagen area, Territory of Papua and New Guinea’ (Land Res. Ser. no 27, 1970, p. 1-159, 15 fig., 23 tab., maps).
(2) Cf. ‘General report on Lands of the Wabag-Tari area, Territory of Papua and New Guinea 1960-61’ (C.S.I.R.O. Land Res. ser. no 15, Melbourne 1965; vegetation description by Pullen and Robbins, p. 100-113 with 16 photogr.).
(3) R.G. Robbins & J. Wyatt Smith: ‘Dry land forest formations and forest types in the Malayan Peninsula’ (Mal. For. 27, 1964, p. 188-216, 12 fig.).
(4) Cf. H. Crum in Bryologist 62, 1959, p. 283-289; E.B. Bartram: ‘Contributions to the Mosses of the Highlands of Eastern New Guinea’ (Brittonia 11, no 2, 1959); ‘Low Altitude Mosses from Northwest New Guinea’ (ibid. 13, 1961, p. 368-380); ‘Mosses of the Western Highlands of Eastern New Guinea’ (Rev. Bryol. Lichén. B.S. 30, 1961, p. 185-207).

	Career Collecting localities Collections Literature
	Robbins, Ross Gordon
	(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)
	Born: 1919, Wanganui, New Zealand.
	career: Was educated in New Zealand (M.Sc. Botany 1950); Ph.D. of the University of New Zealand in 1957, on a thesis on the New Zealand Forest History. From 1942-45 with the New Zeal. Army Forces in the Middle East; 1951-56 University Lecturer in Botany, mostly in New Zealand, but two years in Jamaica (1951-52); 1957-60 Plant Ecologist C.S.I.R.O. New Guinea Land Surveys; 1961-66 Research Fellow in Biogeography, Australian National University; for seven months acting as the first curator of the Canberra Botanic Gardens; in 1966 appointed Professor in Botany in the new university at Port Moresby, Papua, taking up the post in July 1967; in Aug. 1970 he accepted an appointment teaching biogeography at Canberra University. His major interests are phytogeography and rain-forest ecology in the Pacific. About 1970 he resigned and still lives in Australia. Some plants, including Dimorphantera robbinsii Sleumer and Barbula robbinsii Bartr. have been named in his honour.
	Collecting localities: 1957. E. New Guinea:¹Eastern and Western Highlands (Goroka-Mt Hagen area) incl. Mt Wilhelm, Mt Hagen, and Mt Giluwe (June-Oct.).-1958. Lower Ramu Valley, incl. Adelbert Ranges (July-Oct.); W. Java (Dec.).-1959. E. New Guinea: Lower Sepik Valley, incl. Prince Alexander Range (June-Oct.).-1960. Western Highlands, Wabag area (June-Sept.).²-1963. In Oct.-Nov. collecting trip in N. Thailand, and proceeding to Malaya.³-1965. Philippines. Mindanao: slopes Mt Talomo (Oct. 2), lower slopes Mt Apo (6), side ridge Mt Apo (c. 2000 m) (7), Mt Talomo (c. 1400 m) (11); Luzon: Mt Pulog (c. 2700 m) (24-25), reaching all the summits.
	collections: End 1961 totalling from 1-3430; duplicates infrequent. In Herb. Lae [LAE], Leiden [L], etc. This collection includes some 750 mosses,⁴ of which a small set from Java. The CSIRO numbers include a few dozen Queensland rain-forest plants. Thailand collection in ? Herb. Canberra [CANB]; dupl. (nos 3536-3689) in Bangkok [BKF]; mosses also at Leiden [L] (from Malaya 3690-3709). Some 50 nos from the Philippines sent to Leiden [L] of which sterile material thrown away. His collections include numbers from New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Fiji, Solomons, Java, Malaya, New Zealand, U.S.A., Canada, and Hawaii.
	literature: (1) R.G. Robbins: ‘Montane formations in the Central Highlands of New Guinea’ (Proc. Symp. Humid Trop. Veg. Tjiawi 1958, 1961, p. 176-195, map); ‘The montane vegetation of New Guinea’ (Tuatara 8, 1961, p. 121-134); ‘The vegetation of New Guinea’ (Austr. Tern 1, 1961, p. 21-32); H.A. Haantjes, R.G. Robbins c.s.: ‘Lands of the Goroka-Mount Hagen area, Territory of Papua and New Guinea’ (Land Res. Ser. no 27, 1970, p. 1-159, 15 fig., 23 tab., maps). (2) Cf. ‘General report on Lands of the Wabag-Tari area, Territory of Papua and New Guinea 1960-61’ (C.S.I.R.O. Land Res. ser. no 15, Melbourne 1965; vegetation description by Pullen and Robbins, p. 100-113 with 16 photogr.). (3) R.G. Robbins & J. Wyatt Smith: ‘Dry land forest formations and forest types in the Malayan Peninsula’ (Mal. For. 27, 1964, p. 188-216, 12 fig.). (4) Cf. H. Crum in Bryologist 62, 1959, p. 283-289; E.B. Bartram: ‘Contributions to the Mosses of the Highlands of Eastern New Guinea’ (Brittonia 11, no 2, 1959); ‘Low Altitude Mosses from Northwest New Guinea’ (ibid. 13, 1961, p. 368-380); ‘Mosses of the Western Highlands of Eastern New Guinea’ (Rev. Bryol. Lichén. B.S. 30, 1961, p. 185-207).