Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. IV St. Louis, Mo., April, 1916 No. 4 
DR. GEORGE ENGELMANN’S GRAPE 
INVESTIGATIONS 
As is well known, the late Dr. George Engelmann, of St. 
Louis, in the midst of a busy life as a physician found time 
to pursue investigations of great value to the botanist. In 
addition to his published works, the results of these studies 
are to be found in sixty large volumes of notes in the library 
of the Missouri Botanical Garden. One of these volumes, 
that upon the grape, is interesting both to the casual reader 
for its revelations as to the methods of work of this un- 
usual man, and to the viticulturist for its detailed studies 
as well as the breadth of view shown. 
Dr. Engelmann’s notes on the grape are of a character 
to interest the anatomist, the horticulturist, and the system- 
atist, and contain careful pencil drawings of many struc- 
tural details of stem, berry, leaf, and flower. Included with 
the personal observations are notes from catalogues, extracts 
from articles, quotations from correspondence, comment 
upon blooming time and visitations of insects, copies from 
herbarium specimens, outlines of leaves of species, drawings 
of internodes and seeds, lists of varieties, mention of species’ 
characteristics, types of flowers, and pollen, photographs of 
viticulturists, and much else. The list might be extended 
to a greater length, but the points covered are enough to 
show the activity of the man’s mind, the thoroughness of 
his observations, and the keenness with which he followed 
important details of structure from the taxonomic stand- 
point. 
In addition to being well informed as to the culture of 
the grape, Dr. Engelmann contributed materially to a 
knowledge of the classification of this group of plants. He 
was a careful observer of the species of other botanists and 
was also a thorough student of new forms. His studies 
upon new species of this genus were published rather exten- 
sively, and his writings are widely read and quoted to-day. 
Dr. Engelmann was quick to see the taxonomic value of 
a number of structures of the seed, fruit, cane, - ae 
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