Royce, Robert Dunlop (Bob)   (1914 - 2008)

Born in Perth, Western Australia, on 14 March 1914. Died in Perth 10 July 2008.

Robert Royce joined the staff of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture in 1937 and transferred to the State Herbarium in 1944, when it was still under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture. He became Curator, Western Australian Herbarium and then Officer-in-Charge, Botany Branch of the same department in 1960.

Curator of the Western Australian Herbarium 1960-1974. He oversaw the planning and construction of the present herbarium building.

His principal interests were in the application of botany to agriculture, conservation and toxic plants. He wrote many papers including The distribution of some of the more toxic plants of south-western Australia in the Western Australian Journal of Agriculture 1(6)1952, The Vegetation of Western Australia in Official Yearbook of Western Australia no. 5 (1965), The Genus Dryandra in Australian Plants 1 (7) 1961 and The Results of an Expedition to Bernier and Dorre Islands, Shark Bay, Western Australia, W.D.L.Ride et al. in Fauna Bulletin no. 2, Fisheries Department (1962).

His substantial collection is lodged at PERTH, with duplicates in B and CANB.

Extracted from: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references];
B. Lepschi pers com 2009.

Collecting localities for 'Royce, R.D.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 13,070 specimens