LINXEAN SOCIETY OF LOXDOIf. 47 



work, and inspires his conception of the problems of pLint- 

 distribution as a phase in a historical process. And as his 

 taxonoraic researches broadened more and more nntil they cul- 

 minated in 'Die Natiirliehen Pflanzenfamilien,' so his phyto- 

 geographical work soon developed into a comprehensive treatise 

 on tlie evolution of the floras of the world, especially since the 

 tertiary period. The first part of the " Versuch eiuer Entwick- 

 lungsgeschichte der Pilanzenwelt," dealing with the temperate 

 floras of the northern hemisphere, appeared in 1879 ; the second, 

 concerning those of the southern and tropical floras, in 1882. 

 Since then so much has been added to our knowledge of plant- 

 distribution in recent and past times, that many a detail would 

 have to be corrected if the work were to be rewritten, but the 

 main outlines would still stand and the spirit which pervades it 

 still lives. In tlie meantime it has not been superseded, but 

 remains, in its own subject, the standard work of to-day as it was 

 30 years ago. In some respects Eiigler himself has, as it were, 

 recast and more fully worked out certain parts of his book. The 

 evolution of the floras of Europe and especially of the Alps, and 

 the diflierentiation of the floras of the vast African continent, 

 have among others been subjects of essays from his fertile pen. 



Just as Engler sought the help of collaborators for ' Die 

 XatUrlichen Pflanzenfamilien ' and the ' Pflanzenreich,' concen- 

 trating and organising their efl'orts in the field of taxonomy, so 

 has he laboured in the domain of phytogeographj% and has given 

 us another series of monographs under the title ' Die Vegetation 

 der Erde,' of which 13 volumes have so far appeared. Two of 

 these, dealing exclusively with the phytogeography of Africa, are 

 from his own pen. 



I have hitherto been speaking of monographs that fitted into 

 the framework of a definite plan, but Engler has also provided in 

 the ' Botanische Jahrbiicher '" a channel for independent papers 

 and articles on taxonomic and phytogeographical subjects of the 

 most Aaried character. Begun in 1881, the ' Jahrbiicher ' have 

 now run to 48 volumes, and they are a veritable store-house of 

 information towards which Engler himself has contributed not 

 a little. 



Immense and important as is the literary work connected, 

 directly and indirectly, with Engler's name, it has never ex- 

 hausted his energies. Aided by fortunate cii'cumstances, supported 

 by an enlightened government and helped by a staft' of able 

 assistants, he has organised for his country a centre of taxonomic, 

 phytogeographical, and economic botany that has only one rival 

 in all the world — the older sister institution at Kew. The 

 botanic garden and botanic museum of old Berlin, with which the 

 memories of Willdenow, Alexander Braun and Eichler Avill for 

 ever remain associated, have been swallowed up in the splendid 

 modern city, but they have arisen in Dahlem rejuvenated and on 

 a scale worthy of the great empire which they are intended to 

 serve, — another monument to the enterprise and power of 



