Brian Laurence Burtt was born at Claygate, in the south of London, on 27 August 1913. He joined the staff of the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in September 1930 as a Temporary Technical Assistant with a weekly wage of twenty-three shillings. After a classical, non-botanical, background at school, Dulwich College, his botanical education started with Fritsch & Salisbury (An introduction to the study of plants) and work with Dr John Hutchinson on naming the backlog of tropical African collections. The Flora of West Tropical Africa project was under way and Hutchinson, with his huge knowledge, was spearheading the routine naming with emphasis on a good eye and a 8× hand lens; there was less emphasis on original research. In the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information Kew of 1932, B. L. Burtt is listed as Assistant Botanist to the Director, Sir Arthur Hill, and to the Assistant Director, John S. L. Gilmour. In that year he published, jointly with Hutchinson, his first botanical paper – on Compositae; in 1934 a paper on Gaultheria, and in 1936 his first contribution to Gesneriaceae and his beloved Streptocarpus. While working during the day with his not unimportant mentors at Kew, in the evenings he studied botany at the Chelsea Polytechnic College and in 1936 graduated with an external BSc from London University. This was the only university degree he took, or was awarded (he was always Mr Burtt), and throughout his life he took the view that the best training for a plant taxonomist was handling a wide range of specimens, field observations and collecting, without over-specialisation. Director Hill was an important influence in his life in many ways, and in stimulating his interest in all aspects of living plants. One of Hill's many interests was the unequal development of cotyledons in Streptocarpus and Bill once reminisced that he demonstrated on this topic at an exhibition held at the Royal Society in London to H. G. Wells and D'Arcy Thomson.

The Second World War interrupted his association with Kew from 1940 to 1946. In the early years of the war, scientists with a degree were offered direct commissions in the army and Bill took advantage of this, being commissioned into the Royal Ordnance Corps in April 1942 and assigned to work on radar development. He was later re-assigned into the fledgling Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME); most of this time was spent on radar networks over southern England, but in 1944 he was in Nigeria testing radar equipment in tropical conditions. He was de-mobbed in early 1946 as Captain Burtt. When the war ended he returned to Kew and, despite his earlier experience of tropical floras with Hutchinson, was put in charge of the Europe/Orient section, succeeding W. B. Turrill who had become Keeper of the herbarium. In summer 1951, he left Kew for good, moved north to Edinburgh and was appointed to the senior post of Principal Scientific Officer on 2 July 1951. Bill's arrival in Edinburgh was in the reign of the formidable Sir William Wright Smith (1875–1956), the last holder of the joint posts of Regius Professor of Botany at Edinburgh University and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Wright Smith gave Mr Burtt the task of modernising the herbarium and library, and guiding the scientific work into new channels; he was told that any research he did would have to be done in his own time! He also had close contact with the horticultural staff, especially with the recently appointed and innovative Curator of the Garden, Edward Kemp. Bill gave him much advice on updating the presentation of living plants in the garden, especially the ‘demonstration garden’, for which the Curator always expressed his sincere gratitude and respect. In the early 1950s, a time of storm and stress, when everything about the Garden (and the university botany department, then also housed in the same building) was in dire need of revivification, there were also new appointments to the junior scientific staff: Peter Green, Andrew Grierson, Ian Hedge, Douglas Henderson and Rosemary Smith. At that time the main task of the botanists was to make all the collections more readily accessible and to get them into good curatorial order. For all staff, curation, in which everyone participated, was a main priority and took clear precedence over the publishing of research papers. The herbarium collections at that time were housed in dusty wooden cabinets in seven separate locations throughout the Garden, many in basic wooden huts of First World War vintage. The library collections were separate again, and likewise inadequately housed on the upper floor of what is now called the Balfour Building. In the early 1950s, the library grant for books and journals was just £150. Botanical life in Edinburgh was certainly not smooth sailing for the Kew appointee and difficulties of all kinds abounded – accommodation, administration, personnel – though alleviated in summer by some cricket (I remember him knocking up 50 for the Garden team when he was over 50), golf and tennis; classical music, and some Gilbert and Sullivan.

In the 1950s, the 9th International Botanical Congress at Montreal had decided that the next Congress would be held in Europe with, possibly surprisingly, Edinburgh as the agreed venue. The certainty of that major forthcoming event was one of the powerful reasons in successfully persuading Treasury sources (the Garden was then administered as a government department by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works) to fund a new herbarium and library building – the one, pro parte, that we all know today. Mr Burtt was, with the then Regius Keeper Dr Harold Fletcher (appointed in 1956), much involved in working with the architects in the planning and structure of the up-to-date new building, which was completed, filled with specimens and ready for use in time for the 10th Congress held in summer 1964. The existing user-friendly and spacious layout of the herbarium, much better than most herbaria throughout the world, owes much to Mr Burtt's influence and practical experience. At Congress time he had the onerous task of acting as Chairman of the Publications Committee. In the Preface to the eventual publication of Abstracts, he wrote, inter alia, ‘one fact has been carved deep in my mind: that the general standard of abstract writing is depressingly low; [some] were so full of verbal padding that when this was excised there was scarcely enough fact left to make an abstract at all’. He always had an enviable ability to express his thoughts in unequivocal writing and, likewise, was orally forthright – though his mien was always that of a gentle and private man.

From the late 1950s onwards, he was able to travel abroad quite widely, both as a botanical consultant and as a collector. In 1958 he was in Pakistan, advising on the setting up of a National Herbarium. In 1962 he was in Sarawak, collecting with P. J. B. Woods. It was on this expedition that his interest in the Zingiberaceae was stimulated, if not initiated. Over later years numerous important papers on the family were published, often with Rosemary Smith, and the Garden's living research collections multiplied to become of major importance. The first of his c.19 collecting trips to southern Africa took place in 1964 and this was the start of another immensely productive part of his life. His partnership with Prof. Olive Hilliard of Pietermaritzburg University resulted in a huge range of papers, monographs and core works on the plants of southern Africa (including the long series ‘Notes on some plants of southern Africa chiefly from Natal’, the beautiful monograph of Dierama, and their Streptocarpus – an African Plant Study). In addition to adding vastly to our southern African herbarium collections with excellent, well-annotated specimens, many of their new introductions enriched horticulture. One example is found in Diascia (Scrophulariaceae), a herbaceous genus of c.50 species, attractive and pink-flowered. In The European Garden Flora 6: 304 (2000), 8 of the 16 species treated were described by Hilliard & Burtt. A visitor to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh or, especially, to its specialist garden at Logan in SW Scotland, will see many examples of these fine garden plants.

Other than some part-botanical, part-archaeological holiday trips to Turkey with Olive Hilliard in his later years, Bill's last serious field-trip was to Mt Kinabalu in 1998 at the age of 85. There he saw, for the first time in the field, plants that he had described many years previously – especially of the family Gesneriaceae.

Another part of Bill's multi-faceted botanical life was his involvement in various Floras, including three that are still ongoing: Flora of [West] Pakistan, Flora of Bangladesh and Flora of Thailand. He had considerable influence in their genesis and structure and, later on, together with colleagues in Edinburgh, vetted and improved innumerable submitted accounts.

During a publishing span of an amazing 76 years (1932–2008), his productivity was, by any standard, enormous; as was the consistent high quality. The long list of his publications, as sole or co-author, gives ample evidence of this. But it is the diversity of subjects that is also remarkable: taxonomy, nomenclature, anatomy (especially the use of sclereids as a taxonomic character), biogeography, numerical taxonomy, recurrent evolutionary parallelism, resupinate flowers, functional evolution, spirally twisted fruits, subterranean ovaries, seedling behaviour, cryptocotylar germination, Tournefort's travels, etc. Although Gesneriaceae and Zingiberaceae are the plant families with which he will always be most closely associated, he also published important papers on Compositae, Ericaceae, Geraniaceae, Iridaceae, Scrophulariaceae and Umbelliferae; he contributed numerous accounts over a very long period to Hooker's Icones Plantarum and the Botanical Magazine. His book reviews, over 50 of them, are models of their kind.

Bill was always the colleague everyone in the herbarium, staff and visitors, would turn to for advice and guidance on nomenclature and literature. Many of us, at least in Edinburgh, will have experienced difficulties in tracing background publications for some project or investigation. On consultation with our mentor, he would come up with, for example: ‘well, if you look in a paper by Manfred Oppenheimer in Beihefte Botanisches Centralblatt of, I think, 1924 you might find the answer’. And you would! His knowledge of botanical literature was vast. In his nineties he would still keep up-to-date with recent papers and publications in the library racks – on all topics.

He had tremendous determination and strength of character. A small example of this was when, at the age of 91, he had a bad fall tripping on the pavement outside the Garden; he lived nearby, at 5 Bangholm Terrace, and walked daily to his work room which he shared with Olive Hilliard. Alarmed bystanders summoned an ambulance that took him to the nearby Western General Hospital. There, amazingly with nothing broken, he was patched up and sent home. The following day he was back at his desk looking as if he'd been in the ring with Muhammad Ali: his face and nose were swollen blue and yellow, blending with two black eyes. Rather stupidly, I asked if he'd got a bad shock when he fell on his face: the reply was ‘not at all – now, about that nomenclatural question you asked about yesterday, I think…’.

In 1978, together with the ex-Director of Kew, Sir George Taylor, he was the guiding influence in establishing the independent charitable trust fund now known as the Sibbald Trust. The Trust continues to play an important role in supporting various aspects of the botanical and horticultural work and interests of the Garden. Bill Burtt was a trustee for 30 years, with very clear views on its functions. The Sibbald Trust was always high on his list of priorities.

Various honours came his way – he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1978; the Patrick Neill prize of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society in 1979; and the Linnean [Botany] Medal of the Linnean Society in 1981. The last award was the first time that this honour had come to Edinburgh since the time of Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, Regius Keeper from 1888 to 1922. A few years later, this prestigious medal was also awarded to Prof. Peter H. Davis, of Edinburgh University's then Botany Department and mainly based at the Garden, for his work on the monumental Flora of Turkey (1965–1988). Bill Burtt and Peter Davis, colleagues over a long time, were major figures in influencing the interests and research activities of the Garden from the 1950s to the present day, and in raising Edinburgh's global reputation.

In October 1942 he married Joyce Daughtry; two sons from that marriage, Anthony and Julian, survive him as does his second wife Olive Hilliard whom he married in 2006. He died at the end of May 2008 in a nursing home at Loanhead outside Edinburgh after a few months of debilitating illness.

Bill Burtt will always be remembered as an outstanding and much respected international botanist. Some obituaries classified him as a botanist of the ‘old school’ and there is truth in this: his 8× hand lens was always an essential tool in naming plants; all his manuscripts were hand-written before being sent for typing; he never used a computer; neither car nor television were part of his life-style. But, exceedingly few botanists of the present generation will ever match his achievements, or contribute so much to our knowledge of plants.

B. L. Burtt's enormous contribution to botany is reflected in the fact that 29 species have been named in his honour. The wide range of families (Apiaceae, Araceae, Asteraceae, Begoniaceae, Colchicaceae, Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, Gesneriaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Rubiaceae, Rutaceae, Winteraceae and Zingiberaceae), and the wide geographical distribution of the plants described (from the Aegean Islands to South Africa, and as far east as the Solomon Islands), are a true reflection of his broad interests in plant diversity and biogeography.

Species named in honour of B. L. Burtt (in alphabetical order, with publication, family position, and distribution) are as follows:

• Aegopodium burttii Nasir, Fl. W. Pakistan 20: 68 (1972), Apiaceae, Pakistan.

• Aeschynanthus burttii Mendum, Edinburgh J. Bot. 60(3): 326 (2004 [‘2003’]), Gesneriaceae, Thailand.

• Amomum burttii R.M.Smith, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 42(2): 301 (1985), Zingiberaceae, Borneo (Sarawak).

• Argostemma burttii B.Bremer, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 76(1): 22 (1989), Rubiaceae, Borneo (Sarawak).

• Aridarum burttii J.Bogner & D.H.Nicolson, Aroideana 2(4): 116 (1979), as ‘burtii’, Araceae, Borneo (Sarawak).

• Begonia burttii Kiew & S.Julia, Gard. Bull. Singapore 58(2): 207 (2007), Begoniaceae, Borneo (Sarawak).

• Belliolum burttianum A.C.Smith, J. Arnold Arbor. 23: 439 (1942), Winteraceae (originally described in Magnoliaceae), Solomon Islands (Bougainville).

• Boesenbergia burttiana R.M.Smith, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 85(1): 43 (1982), Zingiberaceae, Borneo (Sarawak).

• Carex burttii H.J.Noltie, Edinburgh J. Bot. 50(2): 186 (1993), Cyperaceae, India (Sikkim), Bhutan, SW China (Xizang).

• Caulokaempferia burttii K.Larsen & Jenjitt., Edinburgh J. Bot. 60(3): 509 (2004 [‘2003’]), Zingiberaceae, Laos.

• Colchicum burttii R.D.Meikle, Curtis's Bot. Mag. 181(3): 134 (1977), Colchicaceae (originally described in Liliaceae), E Aegean Islands, Turkey.

• Curcuma burttii K.Larsen & R.M.Smith, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 36(2): 271 (1978), Zingiberaceae, Thailand.

• Cyrtandra burttii N.P.Balakrishnan, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 35(1): 115 (1976), Gesneriaceae, Nicobar Islands.

• Elettariopsis burttiana Y.K.Kam, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 40(1): 144 (1982), Zingiberaceae, Peninsular Malaysia.

• Ericinella hillburttii E.G.H.Oliv., Bothalia 16(1): 46 (1986), Ericaceae, S Africa.

• Etlingera burttii A.D.Poulsen, Etlingera Borneo: 84 (2006), Zingiberaceae, Borneo (Sabah, Sarawak).

• Lotus burttii Borsos, Canad. J. Bot. 50(9): 1868 (1972), Fabaceae (Leguminosae), Pakistan.

• Loxonia burttiana A.Weber, Pl. Syst. Evol. 127(2–3): 209 (1977), Gesneriaceae, Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah, W Kalimantan).

• Melicope burttiana Stone, Madroño 16: 165 (1962), Rutaceae, Solomon Islands (Bougainville).

• Monophyllaea burttiana Kiew, Gard. Bull. Singapore 54(2): 244 (2002), Gesneriaceae, Borneo (Sabah).

• Opithandra burttii W.T.Wang in Weitzmann et al., Novon 7: 430 (1998), Gesneriaceae, China (Jiangxi).

• Osteospermum burttianum B.Nord., Edinburgh J. Bot. 60(3): 262 (2004 [‘2003’]), Asteraceae, S Africa.

• Othonna burttii B.Nord., Bot. Not. 133(4): 555 (1980), Asteraceae (Compositae), S Africa (Natal, Lesotho).

• Paraboea burttii Z.R.Xu, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 32(4): 359 (1994), Gesneriaceae, Thailand.

• Schoenoxiphium burttii Kukkonen, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 43(3): 365 (1986), Cyperaceae, S Africa (Natal).

• Streptocarpus burttianus Pócs, Fragm. Flor. Geobot. 35(1–2): 40 (1991), Gesneriaceae, Tanzania.

• Streptocarpus hillburttianus T.J.Edwards, Novon 13(2): 186 (2003), as ‘hilburtianus’, Gesneriaceae, S Africa.

• Torenia burttiana R.R.Mill, Edinburgh J. Bot. 50(2): 211 (1993), Scrophulariaceae, Bhutan.

• Wurmbea burttii B.Nord., Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 36(2): 227 (1978), Colchicaceae (originally described in Liliaceae), S Africa (Natal, Lesotho).

[The genus Burttia (Connaraceae), described by Baker & Exell in 1931 (J. Bot. 69: 249, 1931), and some of the African species with the epithet burttii are named after Bernard Dearman Burtt (1902–1938) rather than Brian Laurence Burtt. They were not related. Species dedicated to B. D. Burtt have been described in the genera Acacia, Agrostis, Anthephora, Apochiton, Baphia, Brachystegia, Bulbophyllum, Canthium, Cassia, Cleome, Combretum, Craibia, Crotalaria, Dombeya, Eriocaulon, Erythrina, Grewia, Habenaria, Indigofera, Lobelia, Margelliantha, Nesaea, Nymphaea, Otiophora, Pachystigma, Pavetta, Ruellia, Smithia, Tarenna, Tephrosia and Tessmannia. All are from East and (less frequently) West Africa and most of them were described between 1929 and 1940. B. D. Burtt made extensive collections in Africa, firstly in West Africa, in the area then known as Belgian Congo, and later in East Africa, especially in the area then known as the Tanganyika Territory. He died in an aeroplane accident in 1938.]

This compilation is based on a notebook entitled ‘Chronological List of Botanical Publications by B. L. Burtt’, in which Burtt recorded his publications, starting in 1932. This list, however, proved to be far from complete with regard to book reviews, semi-popular works (including one edited book) and articles in the Botanical Magazine. These have been added by the authors in the same form as in the notebook, so that solo and co-authored publications, and both books and papers, appear in a single chronological sequence. A small number of articles in Burtt's series ‘Studies in the Gesneriaceae of the Old World’ (1954–1990) and ‘Old World Gesneriaceae’ (1990–2006) were written by Edinburgh botanists but not co-authored by B. L. Burtt; these are omitted from the list.