General Introduction 35 



work he did was of less importance. Mention should be made, 

 however, of his paper on the morphology and development 

 of Salvinia, in 1863, when for the first time the life-history 

 of the plant was traced ; also of his great investigation of 

 the Saprolegnieae, in which he discovered the sexual repro- 

 duction. 



One of Pringsheim's most noteworthy services to science 

 was the founding of the Journal which is commonly called 

 by his name. The Jahrbi'icher fur wissenschaftliche Botanik 

 was started in 1858, and has been one of the leading botani- 

 cal periodicals ever since. 



Pringsheim was the principal advocate of the so-called 

 homologous theory of the alternation of generations, appear- 

 ing as a vigorous opponent of Celakowski. He published 

 his views on the subject in 1876. Reference will be made 

 in more detail to them in a subsequent chapter. 



In his views on evolution Pringsheim was a supporter 

 of Naegeli. 



The death of Sachs in 1897 terminated a career remarkable 

 for the influence it had on the progress and development of 

 botanical science. Alike as philosopher, investigator, writer, 

 and teacher, Sachs stood out conspicuous as one of the fore- 

 most botanists of the century. 



The next year, 1898, saw the death of Cohn, in an old 

 and honoured age. He was not well known to the younger 

 generation of botanists, for most of his work was done before 

 the opening of, or early in, our period. In his younger days 

 he investigated with great thoroughness the lower mem- 

 bers of the vegetable kingdom, and to the end of his life 

 they formed the chief centre of his interest. Cohn was the 

 original editor of the Beitrage zur wissenschaftliche Botanik. 



The century had hardly ended when botany was called 

 upon to suffer the loss of one of the most enthusiastic and 

 able of its younger votaries, in the person of A. F. W. 

 Schimper, who died in 1901. He gained a reputation 



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