KARL WILIIELM VON NAKGELI. 



377 



was so decided that lie was allowed to go to Geneva, where he stud- 

 ied with De C-andulle for a time. He afterwards weiil to Berlin, 

 where his attention was turned to philosophical studies. He then 

 proceeded to Jena, where he was associated with Schleiden, whose 

 influence is clearly seen in the earlier writings of Naegeli. He was 

 married in 1845, and soon after returned to Zurich, where he be- 

 came Privatdocent, and afterwards Professor Extraordinarius. In 

 1852, Naegeli, after having declined a call to Giessen, was ap- 

 pointed Professor at Freiburg, in Breisgau. In 1855 he again 

 returned to Zurich, where he was made Professor of General Botany 

 in the new Polytechnic School. He resigned this position in 1857, 

 and accepted an appointment as Professor of Botany and Director 

 of the Botanic Garden at Munich, where he remained until his 

 death. Por the last twenty years of his life Naegeli's health was 

 feeble, but he was nevertheless able to continue his scientific work 

 during most of that period. In his feeble condition he was unable . 

 to rally from au attack of the influenza during the epidemic of 

 1889-90, and gradually succumbed to the disease. 



During his long and active scientific career, Naegeli's influence 

 was seen mainly in his writings, for, as a university lecturer, he 

 did not succeed to the same extent as some of his contemporaries 

 in attracting numbers of enthusiastic followers. Owing to certain 

 peculiarities of temperament he was not personally popular with the 

 botanists of Germany, and few of the younger botanists sought his 

 instruction. That he was, however, capable of stimulating oth- 

 ers to work of the highest grade is evident, if we consider that 

 C. Cramer and Schwendener were his pupils and associates. 



As a writer and investigator probably no botanist of the present 

 century has had greater influence in shaping the course of modern 

 botany than Naegeli. His botanical career began at a time when 

 the influence of Schleiden was predominant, and naturally the 

 early work of Naegeli bore the mark of Schleiden's peculiar views. 

 But Naegeli was a man of decided originality, and united great 

 accuracy as an observer with a genius for speculation and philo- 

 sophical inquiry, and he soon freed himself from the limitations ol 

 Schleidenian conceptions. If, at the present day, we are obliged 

 to admit that some of Naegeli's own theories have not stood the 

 test of time, we must also admit that they were very suggestive 

 and fruitful of results in their day, while, as an observer of facts, 

 we can only admire his uniform accuracy and truthfulness. It is 

 only natural that the theoretical views of Naegeli, formulated at a 



