368 Personalnachrichten. 



But he was perhaps even more distinguished as an investigator. 

 His work in Ceylon determined his line of research, and led him 

 to devote his attention almost exckisively to the Fiingi and 

 Bacteria. The results of his work are embodied in a number of 

 papers published, chiefly, in the Philosophicai Transactions of the 

 Royal Society and in the Annais of Botany. Among the former niay 

 be specially mentioned the paper on the tubercular swellings in the 

 roots of Vicia Faba, in which he showed that the parasite enters 

 the root by the root-hairs (1887); that on the Ginger-beer Plant 

 (1892) in which a curious case of syinbiosis was revealed ; that on 

 the action of light on Bacteria, where the bactericidal action of 

 light was demonstrated to be due to the rays of high refrangibility ; 

 those on Stereum hirsntiim (1898) and on Onygena eqiiina (1899); 

 and that on the histology of Uredo dispersa (1903) in which he 

 expressed his dissent from Eriksson 's mycoplasm-theory. Among 

 his papers in the Annais the most important are that on the 

 histology and physiology of the fruits and seeds of Rhamniis 

 (1887), showing that the colouring- matter is produced by 

 the decomposition of a glucoside contained in the pericarp 

 by an enzyme contained in the testa of the seed; and that on a 

 Lily-disease (1889), containing the discovery that the fungus (Bo- 

 trytis) penetrates the cell-walls of the host by means of an enzyme 

 (cytase) secreted at the tips of the hyphae. His most laborious 

 price of work was the investigation of the bacteriology of the Thames, 

 in the course of which he followed out the life-history of no less 

 than eighty forms of Bacteria: the results of this research are given 

 in a series of reports presented to the Royal Society (Proceedings 

 1894 — 1897). The last work in which he engaged was the investi- 

 gation of the physiological races or biologic forms of the Brown 

 Rush of the Brome-grasses. The conclusion at which he arrived 

 was that the infection or immunity of the grass does not depend 

 upon its structure, but upon internal conditions: that it depends, in 

 fact, upon the relation between certain substances, possibly enzymes 

 or toxins, in the cells of the fungus, and corresponding substances, 

 ant-enzymes or anti-toxins, in the cells of the host (Proc. Roy. Soc. 

 vols 69 and 71, 1902). 



Ward also wrote several books: on trees, on timber, on grasses, 

 and on plant-diseases, all of them dealing with their subjects from a 

 practica! point of view. Indeed the practical application of Botany 

 was the leading idea in all that he did or wrote. 



So much good work did not fall to meet with due recognition. 

 Ward was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1886, and of 

 the Royal Society in 1888, receiving a Royal Medal in 1893. In 

 1897 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Christ's College, Cam- 

 bridge; and in the same year was President of the Botanical Section 

 at the Meeting of the British Association in Toronto. He was 

 President of the British Mycological Society 1900 — 1902, and received 

 the honorary fellowship of various learned societies. He took part 

 in the International Congress of botanists at Vienna in 1905. 



It will have been seen that Ward was an indefatigable worker, 

 and there can be no doubt that his increasing labour shortened his 

 life, to the lasting regret of his many friends and colleagues both 

 in Britain and abroad. S. H. Vines. 



Ausgegeben: 9. Oktober 1906. 



Verlag von Gustav Fischer in Jena. 

 Druck von Gebrüder Gotttielft, Kgl. Hofbuchdrucker in Cassel. 



