Studii-s on Crown Gall of Plants ■10'^ 



Some years Lxforc. lie IkkI lost his father. Only a year or so 

 past, Louisa Frink Smith, his mother, had died in her son's home 

 cared for by an afTectionatc dauj^hter-in law. T.rwin Smith had 

 centered all of his love in one '" luminous and beautiful person- 

 altity. ... Of all the women [he had] known and reverenced, 

 this woman best satisfied [his] ideals, and of all her traits," he 

 said, " that which deepest impressed itself upon [him] was her 

 divine simplicity, a characteristic of all really great souls." And 

 now she lay ill a far distance away. 



Smith continued with his work as he was sure she wished him 

 to do. On July 12, 1906, a letter arrived from H. J. Webber of 

 the Laboratory of Plant Breeding of the Department at Wash- 

 ington. He wrote that it would be impossible for him to attend 

 the International Conference on Genetics to be held in London 

 late that month. He asked Smith to attend and present a state- 

 ment of the plant breeding work of the Department in his stead. 

 He explained in a letter of July 28 that Mrs. Webber was ill. 



Dr. Smith had planned to go to the Netherlands and so he 

 accepted the honor of addressing the conference. He wrote 

 Webber: " Next to my own work in the Depart[ment] I am 

 most interested in yours, and I think I can interest the Conference 

 for a half hour at least." Webber thought so, too. On July 28 

 he told Galloway: " Dr. Smith understands the breeding work of 

 the Department sufficiently well so that I think he can represent 

 us intelligently and aid the Department by an explanation of the 

 knowledge of its work." 



Scientists in Berlin had been cordial to Smith and he had visited 

 many points of interest. Soon after his arrival, he had enjoyed 

 " an hour or more talking plant pathology and kindred subjects " 

 with Dr. Paul Sorauer. A few days later they strolled through 

 the new botanic garden " inspecting first the plants arranged in 

 families on the south side of the grounds and then those arranged 

 geographically on the north side near the new buildings." Smith 

 believed that this garden would " soon become the most famous 

 in the world." He saw there " many interesting plants " and 

 particularly commended Dr. Engler's " efforts to show the flora 

 of a given region (alpine plants, etc.)." Sorauer and he spoke 

 in German and, in contrast to his experience in Italy, he found 

 no difficulty in understanding him. Sorauer told him that his " new 



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