Plant Morphology in America. 107 



botany developed by his successors. In those early days there 

 were very few professorships of botany, and much credit is due 

 the pioneers who, with inadequate facihties and small pay, did 

 so much to lay the foundations of the well-eciuipped departments 

 of botanv which now form a part of every university of any 

 pretensions. 



When about 1880, an enthusiastic group of young English 

 botanists, all of whom afterwards became distinguished, studied 

 in Germany under Sachs and De Bary, and, on returning to 

 lingland, put into admirable English dress the famous text- 

 books of those German masters, they did a piece of work which 

 was far-reaching in its effects. Shortly after the ap])earance 

 of the translation of the great Sachs' text-book Professor Bessey 

 offered to the American student his excellent text, largely based 

 upon this, and there a])peared soon after a number of other books 

 some of which were strictly laboratory manuals. All of these 

 text-books strongly emphasized the morphological aspect of 

 tlie subject, and everywhere the students were hard at work 

 tracing life histories and studying comparative morphology. 



The results of this activity were soon evident in an ever 

 increasing number of publications of a morphological character. 

 .Moreover, during the ten years from 1885 to 1895, a large number 

 of American students went to Germany for study, where many 

 of them came under the influence of the great morphologist, 

 Strasburger, who probably was the most potent factor in 

 directing the work of the morphological students at that period. 

 This was especially seen in the great number of cytological 

 papers produced in his laboratory, or as a result of his writings. 

 Among the most active American workers in this field may be 

 mentioned Atkinson, Chamberlain, Davis, Harper, I.awson, 

 Mottier, Schaffner and Shaw. 



It was during this period that the interest in cytological 

 problems was probably at its height. This was due in part 

 to the introduction among botanists of the more exact methods 

 of fixing and staining, in which the zoologists had been rather 

 ahead of the botanists. It was during this period also, that the 

 microtome came into general use as an adjunct to botanical 

 research. The use of the microtome, making possible accurate 

 series of sections, marked a great advance in the study of plant 



