Genus Bolusanthemum

For Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus (née Kensit) (1877–1970), South African analytical botanist, taxonomist and daughter-in-law of Harry Bolus, whose son, Frank, she married. She obtained a BA honours from the South African College, Cape Town (now the University of Cape Town) (1902) and an honorary DSc from the University of Stellenbosch (1936). In 1903 she was made curator of Harry Bolus’s private herbarium, bequeathed to the University of Cape Town in 1911, but retained her position until 1955 when she retired aged 77. She had a vast knowledge of Cape flora with a special interest in Mesembryanthemaceae. In her career she described some 1 700 new species of succulent plants. She wrote popular and scientific works including Notes on Mesembryanthem and Some Allied Genera, A Book of South African Flowers, and A Second Book of South African Flowers.