116 FRIEDEICH SCHMITZ. 



de Bary, and when his chief was transferred to Strasburg Dr. 

 Schmitz went with him and remained until 1874, when he returned 

 to Halle as assistant Professor. He went from there in 1878 to 

 Bonn as Extraordinary Professor of the University ; here he 

 remained till 1884, when he was appointed Professor of Botany 

 and Director of the Botanical Gardens in the University of 

 Greifswald, one of the most ancient seats of learning in Prussia. 



The scientific work of Professor Schmitz was characterized by 

 the exactitude with which every point was worked out before it was 

 published, and it is perhaps a subject for regret that, owing to this 

 rule of his to leave no detail unsolved, the work on which he was 

 engaged — the revision of the FluridecB — up to his death was not 

 ready for publication. His first important contribution to phy- 

 cology, on ^' HalosphtBra, a new genus of green algaj," appeared in 

 1878, but he had previously publislicd some dozen original papers 

 on botanical subjects. From that time up to his death his publi- 

 cations on the reproductive organs and vegetative growth of the 

 seaweeds were numerous, but all of them of the greatest interest 

 and importance, those of perhaps the highest value being on the 

 cell-structure of the SiphonucladiacecB, on the zoosporangia of 

 Halimeda, on I'hyllusiphon, and on Luphothalia. His two papers, 

 published in 1883, on the chromatophores of seaweeds and the 

 reproduction of the FloiidetB, have both been regarded as of the 

 highest authority for specialists on these difficult subjects, and it is 

 of interest to note that at a recent meeting of the Linnean Society 

 Mr. Brebner showed some drawings of the reproductive organs of 

 some species of Flondece which he had made from a series of 

 preparations, and all of which were confirmatory of the drawings 

 published by Professor Schmitz more than ten years ago. 



Professor Schmitz' s collecting was done chiefly at the zoological 

 station at Naples and during a visit to Greece, and much of his 

 material was obtained from that source. His skill in examining 

 algse was exceptional, and though he spurned the use of the new- 

 fangled mechanical contrivances, many of his descriptions were the 

 result of his careful sections of very scanty material. On two 

 occasions he visited England, in the summer of 1889 and again in 

 1892, when he was present at the Edinburgh meeting of the British 

 Association, and visited the marine biological station on the Clyde 

 at Millport. 



I had the privilege of studying in the research laboratory at 

 Greifswald under Professor Schmitz and his assistant, Dr. Paul 

 Hauptfleisch, and the considerate kindness with which, even in the 

 stress of work, he was wont to devote himself to instructing and 

 helping the workers in his laboratory, and the patience with which 

 he would explain his investigations even to me, whose imperfect 

 knowledge of German made the task more tedious, will always be a 

 grateful memory. His extraordinary devotion to his life's work, 

 with hardly sufficient time left for sleep, was an example which 

 influenced those around him, and the rare hours of leisure and 

 relaxation in his family circle which he allowed himself were keenly 

 enjoyed. It is with a melancholy pleasure that I record these 



