CHAP, in.] qf Cell-membrane in Plants. 267 



was proposed by persons who understood little of it, and who 

 were unable to judge of what had been written about it ; how 

 else could they have placed the opinions of a Mustel and 

 a Medicus side by side with those of Malpighi and Grew? 

 Had Bernhardi or Mirbel set the question, it would certainly 

 have been better conceived. It was in keeping that the three 

 essays sent in, all inferior to Bernhardi's work already men- 

 tioned, though they contradicted one another on the most 

 important points, were nevertheless all accepted ; not less so 

 that Treviranus' essay obtained only the second place, though 

 it was decidedly better than the other two, and very much 

 better than Rudolphi's. The best result of the whole affair 

 was that it stirred up the phytotomists of the day, and led Mir- 

 bel to submit the three prize treatises to a searching criticism, 

 especially that of Treviranus, which Mirbel with professional 

 acumen recognised as the best. Link's essay appeared in 1807 

 under the title ' Grundlehren der Anatomic und Physiologic der 

 Pflanzen,' that of Rudolphi as ' Anatomic der Pflanzen,' also in 

 1807, each forming a handsome octavo volume. The work of 

 Treviranus had already appeared in 1806 with the title, ' Vom 

 inwendigen Bau der Gewachse.' 



If we compare the works of Link and Rudolphi 1 , which 

 both received a prize, and which had all the appearance of 

 text-books of general vegetable phytotomy and physiology, we 

 miss in both any clear exposition of the conceptions connected 

 with the words used, and the train of thought therefore is 

 constantly obscure and vacillating. Yet it is easy to see that 

 they are opposed to one another in all essential points, Link 2 



1 Karl Asmus Rudolphi, born at Stockholm in 1771, was Professor of 

 Anatomy and Physiology in Berlin, and died there in 1832. 



* Heinrich Friedrich Link was born at Hildesheim in 1767, and became 

 Doctor of Medicine of Gottingen in 1788. In 1792 he became Professor of 

 Zoology, Botany, and Chemistry in Rostock, Professor of Botany in 1811 

 in Breslau, and in 1815 in Berlin, where he died in 1851. He was a clever 

 man of very varied accomplishment, but not a very accurate observer of 



