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Abstract
A short account of the life of Boris Vasil’evich Skvortzov (1896–1980) is presented. Some details of his background, his family and his legacy are documented. A short summary of his achievements are included.
Keywords:
Acknowledgements
Our grateful thanks to the many useful comments and suggestions from an anonymous reviewer and from Dr Irina Belyaeva-Chamberlain (Kew) for advice and guidance on accepted methods of transliteration.
ORCiD
David M. Williams http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0584-307X
Notes
1. It must be remembered that Algaebase covers all of the various algal groups, several of which Skvortzov published on.
2. The International Plant Names Index provides a birth date of 1890, which is incorrect. We informed them of this and the entry has been changed (http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do).
3. Valentin Lyudvigovich Anders (1879–1942) was born in the Amur region. In the early 20th century he established the first male private school in Harbin. It functioned in accordance with classical programme of the Russian Ministry of Education.
4. Robert Wilhelm Kolbe (1882–1960) (Selling Citation1962).
5. Stanislav [Stanisław] (Michaelovic) Wisłouch (1875–1927), a Polish phycologist who published several papers on diatoms (Siemińska Citation2007: 31, fig. for a portrait), including a number of studies co-authored with Kolbe (Wisłouch & Kolbe Citation1916, Citation1927).
6. This is the transliterated title of Otdêl'noe Izdanie. Obshchestvo Izucheniya︡ Manʹchzhurskogo Kraiya︡, issues examined were published from 1925–1928.
7. Tatiana Sendulsky (1922–2004, see Hoehnea 31(3) and Filgueiras Citation2004: 5).
8. NKVD (Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del) is the secret police agency in former USSR from 1934 to 1946.
9. The same details can be found elsewhere in Skvortzov's writings (e.g. Skvortzov & Noda Citation1971: 3)
10. Various notes are scattered throughout the literature dealing with the fate or whereabouts of Skvortzov's apparently vast collection. Early on Charles Reimer noted that ‘Attempts to secure holotype or type material from Skvortzov have been unsuccessful. In a letter recently received by Dr. F. Hustedt, Skvortzov mentioned that his prepared materials had been destroyed in China’ (Reimer Citation1959: 2). Armed with that information, Reimer took the only course possible and designated neotypes but Skvortsov's material does appear every now and then, as, for example, several of the collections that he used for the Lake Baikal studies reside in Bremerhaven (Williams Citation2004).
11. Skvortzov (Citation1937b); this paper can now be accessed at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-6724.1937.mp17002006.x/pdf
12. Skvortzov wrote of this fire in 1971: ‘The university during the advance of Japanese army to Soochow was burned… ’ and he went on to note that ‘The present manuscript [Skvortzov Citation1971] is the third one… ’ (Skvortzov Citation1971: 59). Although Skvortzov (Citation1971) has not been examined in the CAS online diatom name catalogue (accessed 21/3/2016), all the names included were already described in print in Skvortzov (Citation1946).
13. This species is a bamboo endemic to the Sao Paolo region.