A Biographical S\etch xvii 



a new and keen interest, stimulated by his having obtained the 

 germination of curious spore masses or sori. Farlow frowned 

 upon this new enthusiasm as tending to occupy time better 

 spent upon research on the thesis topic. Nevertheless Professor 

 Setchell succeeded in continuing the Doassansia work by care- 

 fully apportioning the morning hours in the laboratory: until 

 9 130 he concerned himself with Doassansia, thereafter with Sac- 

 coriza, and thus was always engaged upon the latter when Far- 

 low made his daily round. 



Together with fellow students in the laboratory, Professor 

 Setchell was encouraged to call occasionally in the evening at 

 Farlow's bachelor apartments. On these occasions the professor 

 regaled the group with anecdotes having to do with the person- 

 alities and work of many botanists, living and dead. By this 

 means Professor Setchell acquired an extensive though some- 

 what unassorted mass of information on botanical history and, 

 more, an enduring interest in the subject. Many years later, a 

 result of this manifested itself in the preparation of a semester 

 of lectures entided "The History of Botany'.' This was the first 

 organized course in the undergraduate curriculum at the Uni- 

 versity of California which dealt exclusively with the historical 

 development of a biological field. For many years it was deserv- 

 edly popular with students of other disciplines besides the bio- 

 logical. 



In 1890, Professor Setchell obtained the doctorate, and a year 

 later accepted appointment as an assistant in botany in Yale 

 University. Soon thereafter he began to consider, among other 

 problems in the marine algae, the distribution of the kelps, and 

 presented his preliminary conclusions before the Connecticut 

 Academy of Science in a short paper entided, "Geographical 

 Distribution of the Laminariaceae'.' In the discussion which fol- 



