Biography

John Henry Lace, botanist and forester, worked in the Indian Forest Service. After training at the National Forest School in Nancy, France, Lace joined the Service in 1881 and went on to be appointed Inspector-General of Forests and Principal of the Forest College at Dehra Dun. At first he was based in the Punjab but also spent time in Burma (Myanmar), Bengal and British Baluchistan (the mountainous region lying in the west of present day Pakistan and southern Afghanistan). He was Chief Conservator of Forests, Burma, from 1908-1913.

Lace's extensive collections from Baluchistan formed the basis for "A Sketch of the Vegetation of British Baluchistan", published in 1891 with W.B. Hemsley in the Journal of the Linnean Society. Lace completed the first forest-botanical checklist for Burma in 1912, a "List of trees, shrubs, herbs and principal climbers, &c.: recorded from Burma with vernacular names", which went through further editions. Lace spent his retirement in England and died at his home in Exmouth, Devon. He was a Fellow of both the Linnean Society and the Royal Society. Many plant species epithets honour him.

Sources:
D.G. Frodin, 2001, Guide to the Standard Floras of the World: 825
J.S.G., 1918, Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 8/9: 341-352
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