Cai Xitao

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Cai.

Cai Xitao or Tsai Hse-Tao (Chinese: 蔡希陶; pinyin: Cài Xītáo; Wade–Giles: Tsai4 Hsi1-tao2, 1911-March 9, 1981) was a Chinese botanist from a village near Dongyang, Zhejiang province, China.

In 1928, after studying at various institutions in Hangzhou and Shanghai, though without attaining any formal qualifications, Cai Xitao was able to secure a job at the Jing Sheng Botanic Laboratory in Beijing (北平静生生物调查所) through family connections.[1] In 1932, he was transferred to Yunnan province, where he worked as a botanist in the province's temperate climate. In 1938, he set up the Yunnan Botany Research Institute (云南农林植物研究所) in Heilongtan, and acted as the institute's Vice President.

In 1950, Cai Xitao was given charge of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and in 1959 the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden) was established under his control.

He died on 9 March 1981.

Some of the specimens he collected are now part of the herbaria at Harvard University.[2]

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.