BRIEFER ARTICLES 



GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON 



(with portrait) 

 In the death of George Francis Atkinson on November 14, 1918, 

 America lost one of her great botanists. Born in the little village of 

 Raisinville, Monroe County, Michigan, on January 26, 1854, he received 

 his preliminary collegiate training in Olivet College in that state. From 

 there he went to Cornell University, where he took the degree of Ph.B. 

 in 1885. Immediately upon graduation he became assistant professor 



of general zoology at the Uni- 

 versity of North Carolina. 

 The following year he was 

 made associate professor, re- 

 maining there until 1888, 

 when he was called to a full 

 professorship in botany and 

 zoology in the University of 

 South Carolina. In 1889 he 

 was appointed professor of 

 biology and botany in the 

 Alabama Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute, where he remained 

 until 1892. In 1892 he was 

 called to Cornell University 

 as assistant professor of 

 botany, became associate 

 professor in 1893, and upon 

 the death of Professor Pren- 

 tiss in 1896 was made full 

 professor and head of the department. He was also for many years 

 the botanist of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station. He con- 

 tinued head of the Department of Botany in the Arts College in Cornell 

 University until his death. 



Upon the request of an organization of his former students, the 

 Board of Trustees of the University in 191 7 relieved him of all teaching 



Botanical Gazette, vol. 67] [366 



