On Plant Pathology -\ni) Ha( tlkiolocv 93 



At one tunc Faiii)\\ IkkI tlu)UL;ht of studying with Sachs at 

 W'urzburg. Gray, however, believed he would go to DeBary, and 

 wrote Alphonsc DeCandollc so. America's leading botanist had 

 shown a steadily increasing interest in plant physiology and plant 

 pathology. Both by writings and in his lectures to students during 

 his last years before retiring from teaching, he had sought to 

 stimulate interest in Europe's "Scientific Botany." For years he 

 had placed confidence in men medically trained. He himself, his 

 close collaborator Torrey, his two appointees Goodale and Farlow, 

 and many of his botanical correspondents were doctors of medi- 

 cine. George Engelmann of St. Louis, whose abilities as a botanist 

 he esteemed second to none in America, was by profession a 

 medical doctor. His inaugural dissertation at the University of 

 Wiirzburg dealt chiefly with the monstrosities and aberrant forms 

 of plants." These men knew the rudiments of anatomy, physi- 

 ology, and pathology. While in this country study-methods of 

 these subjects had not been widely extended from the animal side 

 of biological investigation to that of plants, the beginners of 

 modern plant science research (excluding taxonomy and an older 

 morphology) were to borrow some investigation-techniques from 

 zoologists especially as research in cytology and embryology w^ould 

 get fully under way; * and, conversely, zoologists adapted some of 

 the study methods of botanists to their inquiries. In Europe 

 Eduard Strasburger was just coming on the botanical scene. 

 DeBary's Vergleichende Anatom'ie was being prepared, partly to 

 keep a promise made to Wilhelm Hofmeister. Farlow met many 

 botanists of prominence, heard W. P. Schimper lecture on bry- 

 ology, worked on algae at Antibes with the French phycologists G. 

 Thuret and E. Bornet, studied lichens at Geneva, Switzerland, 

 with the help of Johann Miiller-Argoviensis; and very important 

 were his consultations with J. G. Agardh, Elias Fries and his son, 

 and other cryptogamists, as well as his work at various scientific 

 academies where valuable collections of cryptogamia were.® 



In June of 1873 Gray reported to DeCandollc: 



'Charles A. White, George Engelmann, Natl. Acad. Sci. Biog. Mem. 4: 1-21, 

 1902; Hist, of first half-century of the Natl. Acad., 130, Washington, 1913. 



* W. G. Farlow, op. cit., 83-84. 



"W. A. Sctchcll, op. cit., 4 f. See also A,"?er. N.^turalist 8: 1, 112, 295. See 

 also, Hilda F. Harris, The correspondence of William G. Farlow during his student 

 days at Strasbourg, Farlowia 2 (1): 11 ff., 1945. 



