Re: Dr Richard Sanders Rogers, December 1861 to March 1942.

A brief overview of the man and his interests.

Dr Richard Sanders Rogers, affectionately referred to as RSR by close friends and family, was a private medical practitioner in Adelaide though was more widely known in botanical circles as an authority on native orchids in Australasia. Whilst the collection and research of orchids became a consuming passion he was foremost in applying new technology to medicine and in teaching forensic procedures. He was also an enthusiastic member of a number of professional societies.
The comments that follow may give the reader an insight into the character of the man and his drive for achievement. Whereas he was foremost in a number of endeavours, and was widely recognised, he was a modest man and would quickly play down any public acclamation.

His Scholarship to the University of Adelaide.

As a teenager, RSR went to the Pulteney Street State School - a small church school - founded in 1847. The school is now Pulteney Grammar School at South Terrace.
In 1878, at the age of 17, the Education Department offered two Scholarships to the University of Adelaide. In those days, apart from the usual Uni entrance subjects of Math, English and History, passing exams in either Latin or Greek were also required.
To achieve his goal of a University education, RSR attended private Greek tuition starting at 6am each day for an hour. He did this by walking from Hackney to Norwood. He passed in Greek and won one of the Scholarships. This caused a stir as he was the first State School boy in South Australia to enter University in 1879.
He went on from his Bachelor of Arts to be qualified in Medicine, Botany and History, eventually attaining the highest qualifications in Medicine, Arts and Science.

His interest in Hypnotism.

In 1893, RSR possibly associated hypnotism, called mesmerism in the late 1700s, with faith healing. Becoming interested in the subject he applied what started off as parlour games to practical application at his medical practice in the interests of patient well-being. As far as can be ascertained, RSR was the first doctor in private practice to perform a major operation while acting as both surgeon and hypnotist. This was in 1895 and the episode was published in The Advertiser.
The case involved the removal of a cyst from the breast of a young women patient while she was still awake and talking to assistants and witnesses standing nearby.
She lived on to an old age.
This was a first for medicine and a first for South Australia.

His work with hypnotism was an example of his becoming interested in a subject and then feeling that he must master that subject. This trait was with him throughout his life.

The application of X-rays to medicine.

The German physicist, Roentgen, published his paper on unknown radiations in early 1896. The radiations became known as X-Rays. In August of that year RSR imported an X-ray tube and demonstrated its function to a number of people in Adelaide. At the same time professors in Adelaide and Melbourne were determining the properties of these X-rays and the possible application of this hazardous emanation.
It seems that RSR was the first private, medical practitioner in South Australia to get on the band wagon.
Later in 1896 he demonstrated the device to the newly appointed Chief Commissioner of Police, Colonel Madley. RSR put coins in a leather purse and darkened the room at his practice in Flinders Street. When power from an accumulator was switched on the onlookers could see the outlines of the coins on a fluorescing screen. Colonel Madley did not believe it was a genuine effect and wanted to see the test repeated in a lighted room. Of course the contrast was so poor that the test seemingly had failed. However, some months later RSR was able to display some X-ray plates to the Commissioner as 'tangible evidence'.
The original equipment was passed onto the Adelaide School of Mines museum in 1942 after RSR had died.

Native Australian Orchids.

By 1905, then aged 44, RSR had had his fair share of hypnotism, telepathy, time and its properties, séances and the like, and felt the need for a new mental diversion. He began what he assumed might be a gentle hobby to study orchids and their diversity to help ease his professional tensions. Being a full time doctor, and being involved with many professional institutions as a board member, and a father with a son then 3 years old with a curiosity to pull things apart and see how they work, his tensions were real enough.

Needless-to-say, he became engrossed and in later years his study of orchids and his involvement with like-minded peers, began to infringe upon his professional time. In this pursuit he was not the first anymore. Eminent botanists including Brown, Fitzgerald, Mueller and others, proceeded his contribution. But the lure of the flower's beauty, the chance discovery of a new genus or variety, drove him to fields afar including New Zealand, Tasmania, Papua & New Guinea, West Australia, Kangaroo Island, and so on. RSR's wife, Jean Scott Rogers, accompanied her husband on many of these excursions. In his later years, RSR would say that the time spent exploring the orchid family within Australia alone, had been the most personally rewarding and fulfilling of any hobby.

From 1906 to 1940 RSR became well known in the field and made many technical contributions to orchidology by way of the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. Nowadays, the work being done by members of the Native Orchid Society of South Australia, the R.S.Rogers Shadehouse Shade-house project and the research of other similar groups is testimony to a broad-based love and commitment to the caring and preservation of Australasian native orchids.

Suffice to say the Adelaide Mail, in April 1913, published an interview with Dr Rogers about his hobby. Below are quoted some passages from the interview that add to an understanding of the character of Dr Rogers. The journalist wrote:

"His essential drawback has been his own innate modesty. Had he been of a more pushing nature and had not made light of his accomplishments, the probabilities are that Dr Rogers would have occupied a far more influential position, even, than he does at the present time.
"He is a most companionable man as those who enjoy the circle of his friendship will readily affirm.
"He is believed to have said: 'Study orchids carefully and you will soon acquire the 'orchid eye'. Once that has happened the 'orchid fever' follows which is the least painful of all known fevers. It is infectious among children, who, to my mind, cannot be told too much about our beautiful native flowers'.
"Dr Rogers referred to the initial nurturing of his interest (of orchids) when as a student at Adelaide University in the 1880s, he developed a love of botany which was encouraged by Prof. Ralf Tate and Baron von Mueller. Dr Rogers and the Baron occasionally went on botanical excursions over the Adelaide hills."

In the article mentioned, it was noted that many of the orchids in RSR's collection had been painted by Miss Rosa Fiveash of North Adelaide. Due to her technical accuracy and 'orchid eye' true coloured reproductions were circulated to the major herbariums of the world.

As a matter of record, it was in 1908 that RSR, having been greatly impressed by Miss Fiveash's remarkable fidelity for botanical detail, persuaded her to concentrate upon Australian orchids. RSR provided various aids for her detailed work including German lenses made by Zeiss of Jena. For 30 more years, Miss Fiveash gave of her skill to depict the living orchid in a manner beyond mere words and the barrier of language. Rosa died in 1938 at the age of 83, just a few years before the death of 'her dear doctor'.

Postscript.

A biography of the Reverend Rupp includes a comment by Rupp where he said that it had been his very great privilege to possess the personal friendship of Dr Rogers for close on twenty years. Though they never actually met until RSR visited Sydney in 1932 for the ANZAAS meeting, they had long been in correspondence. Reverend Rupp said that, "only those who have been recipients of Dr Rogers' letters can appreciate what a joy they were to the seeker after knowledge. And he was generous beyond measure with unobtrusive gifts of books, plates, photographs and instruments which he thought would be helpful."

R. S. Rogers Shadehouse, (1982 – )

Sometimes known as the R. S. Rogers Orchid House, the R. S. Rogers Shadehouse project was the inspiration of Roy Hargreaves and the late Jim Simmons, two foundation members of the Native Orchid Society of South Australia. The pipe-framed structure was built in conjunction with the Australian Orchid Foundation in the grounds of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and opened in 1982. It was named after Dr Richard Sanders Rogers in recognition of his contribution to Australian orchidology.

In 1993 the orchid collection was relocated to the Black Hill Flora Research Centre, near Adelaide. This was successfully achieved after a 12 month period of quarantine in the original building. A considerable effort of care and commitment went into the transition of the plants in order to ensure the pot soils were free of Phytophthora cinnamoni, a deadly fungus that is spreading through local soils slowly devouring the root systems of a significant range of plants. The project has been directed and maintained by members of the Native Orchid Society and in particular the orchid collection has been managed by Hargreaves throughout its existence at Black Hill and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

The roles of the project have been to perpetuate native orchid species in cultivation, to provide plants for research projects and to provide visiting botanists with live plants to study. The initial orchid collection comprised some 200 pots of terrestrial orchids many of which were from interstate.

The success of the project can be measured by various standards not the least of which are the number of visits of eminent botanists from Australia and overseas countries. In particular, in 1984 and 1985 plants from the collection (locally known as the Black Hill collection) won the Kay Nesbitt Trophy for a cross between Caladenia flava and Caladenia latifolia. Another success story was finding seedlings of Spiranthes sinensis coming up in pots of other plants being cultivated at the Black Hill Flora Centre. Apparently the seeds were being dispersed naturally by the wind.

A more obvious measure of success, and an indication of the dedication by members of the Native Orchid Society to their collection, has been the awards from local and national competition given to Black Hill specimens. Over a period of six years, from 1992 to 1997, terrestrial natives and terrestrial hybrids from Black Hill have won at least thirteen 1^st prizes and eleven 2^nd prizes in open competition. In particular a Caladenia hybrid came 2^nd at the Australian Native Orchid Conference in 1996 and a Caladenia flava came 1^st at the Affiliated Societies Interclub competition in 1997. Overall, Black Hill specimens of Acianthus, Caladenia, Chilogolottis, Diuris, Eriochilus, Glossodia, Leptoceras, Lyperanthus and Pterostylis have performed exceptionally.

Further information on the R. S. Rogers Shadehouse may be obtained from the Native Orchid Society of South Australia, P.O. Box 565, Unley, S.A. 5061.

TECHNICAL PAPERS ON AUSTRALASIAN ORCHIDS

PUBLISHED BY Dr R S ROGERS, 1861 - 1942

Additional Notes

Some orchids have been named by Dr Rogers and his wife, Jean, for help given to others, and vici versa e.g.:

Caladenia bryceana Rogers - WA - Bryce MacIntrye, discoverer, 1914;
Prasophyllum rogersii Rupp - NSW - Rev H Rupp. Leek Orchid 1928;
Pterostylis rogersii Coleman - NSW - Mrs Edith Coleman;
Drakaea jeanensie - WA - Jean Scott Rogers
Prasophyllum ruppii Rogers - Paterson NSW, 1927
Bulbophyllum weinthalii Rogers - Blotched Bulbophyllum - NSW 1933

Dr Rogers died in 1942 at the age of 80 years.

Source: Written by Lauder R Scott Rogers, grandson of Dr Rogers, Sydney, 2002