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A. F. W. SCHIMPER 



An Appreciation 



The nineteenth century saw the birth of four botanists 

 belonging to the family of Schimper. Of these the first two were 

 the brothers K. F. (1803- 1867) and W. (1 804-1 878), the former 

 famous for his work on phyllotaxis, the latter known as a botanical 

 collector and a traveller; the third was their cousin, W. P. (1808- 

 1880), the professor, distinguished for his work on mosses and 

 palaeophytology ; and the fourth was A. F. W. (1856-1901), son 

 of the last-named, and author of the present work. 



A. F. W. Schimper was born at Strassburg, where his father 

 held the Chair of Geology. His training as a field-naturalist com- 

 menced early, for as a young child he collected and named plants, 

 and as a boy he knew by sight many of the mosses upon which 

 his father was working. A true naturalist and a keen observer he 

 remained to the end of his life. 



His four years (1874-1878) of university life Schimper passed 

 at Strassburg, where he studied natural science and devoted 

 especial attention to two subjects — botany and mineralogy. So 

 far did he prosecute his study of mineralogy that he seriously 

 contemplated becoming a mineralogist 1 ; indeed his first published 

 papers were two brief mineralogical notes issued in 1877, and his 

 next work, on proteid-crystals, was actually published in two 

 forms, the one for botanists and the other for mineralogists. 



Of this paper, Dr. H. Miers, F.R.S., Professor of Mineralogy 

 in the University of Oxford, has recorded his impressions in 

 the following words : — ' This research proves him (Schimper) to 



1 As this has been denied on the authority of Professor P. Groth, I may at once state 

 that I received my information from A. F. W. Schimper himself. 



