Dedication to Dr Cornelis Bas

Kees Bas, born in Rotterdam, graduated in Biology at Leiden University in 1954, and started his life-long career at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, University Leiden branch (then Rijksherbarium/Hortus Botanicus) in 1953 as curator for the fungi, in particular of the Agaricales. In the first period of his career he played a leading role, together with his colleague Rudi Maas Geesteranus, in modernising the collections and bringing together a well-annotated herbarium of Dutch and European higher fungi. Their activities form the basis of the present-day internationally valued collection of about half a million specimens of fungi in the National Herbarium. Kees specialised in the genus Amanita and, in 1969, he defended his PhD thesis on a world-wide revision of Amanita sect. Lepidella. From the very onset of his career, Kees freely shared his knowledge with others. His enthusiasm and energy gave a strong impulse to the Dutch Mycological Society, which developed in the fifties and sixties into a modern and active society with weekly excursions all over the country and forays to neighbouring mushroom hunting locations in Belgium and Germany. Dedication to Dr Cornelis Bas