4 GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE— ROBINSON [MEMOms [ ^ I Sxt 



subject, though by no means completely investigated, had long been pursued and was relatively 

 well matured. Thus, without inordinate difficulty, Doctor Gray was able to bring out his 

 Structural Botany as the first volume of the proposed series. 



The second volume, which devolved upon Doctor Goodale, was to give similar summary 

 of the anatomical and physiological aspects of the flowering plants. Here the conditions were 

 very different. Instead of arranging a selective presentation of subject matter which had in 

 a measure become definite, if not actually static, it was necessary to give, so to speak, an 

 instantaneous view of a host of facts, interpretations, processes, and theories, which were at 

 the time themselves moving, changing, being multiplied, and rearranged with astonishing 

 rapidity. 



Plant morphology, the subject treated by Doctor Gray, was in great measure an inde- 

 pendent one. Not so plant physiology, where investigation is intimately bound up with chem- 

 istry and physics, and its success or failure may depend upon concurrent research in some re- 

 mote field such as optics or crystallography, the perfection of staining reagents, or unexpected 

 discoveries regarding electrical phenomena. 



Doctor Goodale wrote his volume and it appeared in 1885. In the space of about 500 

 pages he compressed a vast amount of matter, summarizing his subject probably as well as its 

 nature permitted at that time. 



There can be little doubt that the work proved disappointing to its author. It was rather 

 too compendious for a laboratory guide, and in the rapid advance of plant anatomy and 

 physiology could not long hold its own as a work of reference. Nevertheless it had some years 

 of great usefulness, and there can be no doubt whatever that it was at its date by far the best 

 work on its subject which had appeared in America. Furthermore, its influence upon subsequent 

 educational works in its field has been considerable. 



It has been a matter of widely felt regret that the third volume in the series, which was to 

 have been an introduction to cryptogamic botany by Dr. W. G. Farlow, was never completed. 



It is less generally known that a fourth volume was also projected, which Doctor Gray 

 described as " a sketch of the Natural Orders of Phsenogamous Plants, and of their special 

 Morphology, Classification, Distribution, Products, &c." This, by his own statement, it was 

 his hope rather than his expectation to draw up himself. 



On the completion of his Physiological Botany, as his volume was generally called, Doctor 

 Goodale turned his attention largely to certain pressing matters somewhat euphemistically 

 termed "organization." To those who work in institutions supported by governmental, State, 

 or municipal appropriations, it can scarcely be realized what complications arise in partially 

 endowed institutions ambitiously expanding and constantly forced to take on functions and 

 maintain establishments of increasing expense. To finance such undertakings it is necessary 

 to secure the interest of persons of substance inclined to constructive liberality. The matter 

 is one requiring consummate tact. There must be the ability to attract favorable attention, 

 to present specific needs clearly, to command respect, and to inspire confidence. 



In all these requirements Doctor Goodale was exceptionally gifted, and he secured the 

 cordial interest of an extended group of persons who repeatedly aided his undertakings with 

 liberality and remained throughout life his devoted friends. His soliciting always had a fine 

 dignity. It was clear that it was impersonal in nature, for high purpose and unselfish ends. 

 His largest single undertaking of this nature was to secure the needful funds to build the botani- 

 cal section of the university museum. This was to furnish quarters appropriate to the existing 

 needs and immediate expansion of the department of botanical instruction, both as to labora- 

 tories and lecture rooms. It was to have rooms also for private offices, library, cryptogamic 

 collections, and ample space for museum exhibits of illustrative botanical material which had 

 long been accumulating at Harvard in a somewhat desultory manner, and which, though 

 already including many objects of rarity and value, had never had proper organization. To 

 this material it was Doctor Goodale's ambition to add objects far more attractive to the public. 



This building enterprise, of considerable magnitude for its period, was carried through by 

 Doctor Goodale in a surprisingly short time, and was completed in 1890. 



