Smuts the botanist: the Cape flora and the grasses of Africa

Beukes, Piet. Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1996.
Hardcover, R70,00 ISBN 0 7981 3529 8, 228mm X 155mm, 120 pages

Field Marshall Jan Smuts is best know for his role as South African Prime Minister, his contribution to the Allied war effort in the Second World War and the never-used, old name of an airport (Johannesburg International). Some may have heard of his tome Holism and Evolution, but he is not known as a botanist! He "loved nature more than sport" however, and described it as "the Great Happiness" and botany as "a sweet opiate expelling the day's interests and preoccupations." Clearly he enjoyed plants.

This much is clear from the book, which is split into two parts: 'the Cape flora' and 'grasses of Africa.' Smuts certainly had a great love for botany, but his contribution to the emerging science in South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century has largely been overlooked. Where he didn't collect and identify plants himself, he encouraged numerous individuals (among them the cream of South Africa's botanical community), arranged scientific expeditions, organised the publication of several books and constantly promoted botany to the public: all often at the same time as he was Prime Minister or another political figurehead.

The author, Piet Beukes, first came into close contact with Smuts when he served as deputy director of the Bureau of Information during World War Two, after this further developing his journalistic skills on several newspapers that supported Smuts politically. The relationship has resulted in several books on different aspects of Smuts' life and a desire to keep his memory alive. Smuts the botanist aims to do just that, keep Smut's memory alive, as well as to expose to a new generation his love of nature and contribution to botany. One could not describe the book as well written, but it is informative and an easy read and, with statements by Smuts such as the following in 1936, one can only agree with the sentiments of the author:

"I think it is a great thing in the life of the community and our country, if a sense of love for all things natural can be developed. ... Our community does not appreciate the wonders of nature that have been showered upon us. I am afraid we are so preoccupied with the economic problems and the task of living that we forget all this beauty, all this wealth that Nature scatters so lavishly. I hope that the children will be taught to learn that this sense of beauty is one of the most precious of possessions".

- Chris Roche -

Posted: Plants by CC Africa, Date: 22 November 2006