Editorial

In 1969 Indonesian botany suffered a severe loss by the untimely death of Dr. B. Prijanto, at the end of April. He was the head of the Forest Exploration Division, Forest Research Institute, Bogor. He belonged to that still very small, but admirable circle of young able Indonesian botanists built up in the early sixties, largely through the efforts of Dr. Kostermans. Dr. Prijanto studied palynology for one year at Stockholm, after which he proceeded to Edinburgh where he received a thorough training under Dr. Burtt, working largely on the systematics of Scrophulariaceae, in connection with problems in Gesneriaceae. He was a very nice and energetic man, full of plans for the future exploration of Indonesian forests. Our sympathy goes to his young wife, whom he had married only a few months before. He was a victim of an unfortunate car accident in SW. Celebes. The accident occurred when he was hunting for Eucalyptus with two Australian foresters, who both met an untimely death as well, one of them being Mr. E. Larsen, of Canberra. Another thing that lamed botanical activity at Bogor was the serious trouble which Dr. Kostermans ran into with the police by whom he was detained. We hope that he will soon be cleared and that this will be a mere incident which will not affect his energy nor his enthusiasm for Indonesian botany. Unfortunately, through this mishap, he was unable to lead the Seminars on botany in August, neither could he accompany the British Museum Botanical Expedition to Central Celebes led by Dr. Jermy. These tasks were taken over by Dr. Rifai. Dr. Kostermans was also unable to attend the opening of the partly finished new Herbarium building in October, towards the planning of which he had contributed so much.