General Introduction 25 



in this direction were not confined to any nationality, 

 though perhaps English investigators were the most 

 prominent. 



The whole period from 1860 onwards, under the various 

 influences which have been mentioned, was marked by 

 a more thorough organization of research. Instead of indi- 

 vidual professors engaged in solitary investigation, as in 

 the early part of the century, well organized schools of 

 work arose which were carried on under capable direction 

 and which received and communicated mutual stimulus. 

 The personal influence of Sachs in founding a school of 

 investigation did not stand alone. His immediate pupils, 

 imbued with the spirit which he was so successful in inspir- 

 ing, became in turn the heads of schools, so that his example 

 was widely followed. Nor was this development confined 

 to his followers ; it was helped by many independent 

 enterprises both in Germany and other countries. The 

 wave of scientific enthusiasm of the time was naturally 

 not confined to botanists, though they were widely and 

 deeply affected by it. One of its most important results 

 was the inclusion of science in the curriculum of general 

 university education. Taken up in the universities of 

 Europe by the most enlightened pioneers of education of 

 the time, the members of the newer school of science 

 were sent out into the world with better training and with 

 better equipment than their predecessors, while the re- 

 sources of the universities were with greater or less freedom 

 placed at the disposal of scientific teachers. Of those who 

 conduced to the development of botanical science in 

 England by bringing about this development and by 

 cultivating the scientific attitude of mind, mention should 

 be made in most appreciative terms of Huxley, Foster, 

 and Thiselton-Dyer. They were quick to perceive the 

 magnitude of the movement of the early sixties, the 

 wonderful possibilities it presented and the importance of 



