Drawings Betje Polak

Drawings of spores and pollen from fern and plants from Netherlands East Indies

The drawings were made by Betje Polak (1901-1980) on purpose of determination pollen in different peat soils in Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia, in the years 1930-1954. Betje Polak worked at the Botanical Garden Buitenzorg at Bogor from 1930-1932. She travelled several times to Java, Borneo and Sumatra to do research on peat soils. Polak decided to make reference drawings by herself, by lack of reference materials  to analyse soil samples containing pollen. She returned in 1939 to Bogor as a soil scientist. Some sheets have drawings on both sides, some only contain text.