1 4 President' fi Address. 



among his fellow-students was one who has most deservedly 

 risen to the highest honour, viz., to tlie Chancellorship of 

 the German Empire, I refer, of course, to Prince Bismarck, 

 and it is much to the credit of the Prince that he did not 

 allow his high position to affect in any way the true friend- 

 ship of their youthful days. 



From 1835 to ]837 Grisebach attended the University of 

 Berlin, where his chief teachers were Kunth and Meyen ; 

 the latter especially captivated him while he expounded 

 vegetable physiology. Among his fellow-students here 

 were Schleiden, the famous author of the "Cellular Theory of 

 Plant Structure," and Schwann, the no less famous applier 

 of that theory to the animal organism. With the former 

 of these Grisebach had frequent and close intercourse, while 

 Schwann was also among the circle of his friends, and for 

 some time lived in the same house with him. In 1836 he 

 took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in that University ; 

 and in the autumn of 1837, in consequence of the death 

 of his father, he removed to Gottingen, and started as a 

 lecturer. 



In 1841 Grisebach was chosen Professor Extraordinary 

 of Botany in the University of Gottingen. In 1844 he 

 pursued the sensible course of entering into a matrimonial 

 alliance with Miss Evelina Eeinbold, daughter of the chief 

 constable of the King of Hanover, and as the fruit of this 

 marriage there were two sons. He was appointed to the 

 chair of Ordinary Professor in the same university in 1847. 



In this university he took the deepest interest, and he 

 gave practical proof of his sincere attachment to it by 

 refusing a call, in 1846, to become Ordinary Professor of 

 Botany at Giessen, at a time when the renown of Liebig 

 was attracting students from all parts of the world to that 

 university. He also refused two invitations which came 

 to him simultaneously, in 1851, from Leipzig and Berlin 

 respectively. In 1855 he likewise refused two other 

 applications to accept a professorial chair at Munich and 

 at St Petersburg ; while, in 1866, a second invitation 

 reached him from Leipzig, which he also declined. Not- 

 withstanding his high intellectual ability and great fame, 

 Grisebach was a man of true humility, which in his case 

 amounted even to shyness ; he was specially amiable, and 



