298 



NA TURE 



\yan. 26, 1888 



He was born in Frankfurt in 1831, and studied in 

 Berlin under Alexander Braun. From an early age he 

 showed extraordinary powers as an original investigator, 

 and was successively Professor of Botany in Freiburg, 

 Halle, and Strassburg, having held the latter dis- 

 tinguished post since 1872. His indefatigable labours as 

 the editor of the Botaiiische Zei/ung, since 1867, are well 

 known ; and English agriculturists knew him from his 

 admirable exposition of his investigations of the potato 

 disease, in 1861, and in the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society for 1876. 



De Bary's influence on the progress of biology has 

 been enormous, and in attempting to form an estimate of 

 the value of his contributions to science, we must try to 

 picture the state of botany in 1850 or thereabouts, when 

 his labours began. 



Little was known of the Thallophytes beyond the ap- 

 parently endless species-making, which was coming into 

 shape, however, under the discriminating hands of 

 Agardh, Harvey, and Kiitzing ; Fries, Leveille, Berkely, 

 and Corda ." the zoospores of Vaucheria had been seen, 

 and the conjugation of Spirogyra was known. Thuret 

 and Nageli were at work : Hofmeister was publishing 

 his illustrious work on the embryology of the Phanerogams 

 and Cryptogams : von Mohl was creating a new school of 

 vegetable anatomy. 



Surrounded by these influences, De Bary was working 

 at the structure and development of the Fungi causing 

 "Rusts" and "Smuts," and in 1853 he published his 

 first book on this subject : Thuret observed the details of 

 the fertilization of Fucus in the same year. 



De Bary was also occupied with the Algae, and in 1854 

 published his observations on CEdogoniiim and Bulbo- 

 chcEte : Pringsheim's papers on Vaucheria, GLdogonium, 

 Saprolegnia, and Coleochccte appeared in 1855-58. The 

 great botanical questions of the day centred around the 

 development of the lower Cryptogams. 



Then came De Bary's researches on the Cotijiigatece, 

 published in 1858, where the essentials of sexual repro- 

 duction are described with wonderful accuracy ; and this 

 was followed by his observations on the germination of 

 Lycopodium, a piece of work so good that although we 

 have only come into possession of most of the remaining 

 facts quite recently, his old figures have been found worth 

 reproducing. 



But, as is well known, De Bary abandoned this newer 

 pursuit of ^he green plants to return to his earlier love, 

 the Fungi ; and from about i860 onwards he sent forth 

 memoirs and books into the world of a nature to shake 

 the tottering hypotheses of the day to their foundations, 

 building up in their place the beginnings of what is 

 rapidly becoming a mighty and coherent superstructure. 



Until about 1850 little was known of Fungi beyond 

 the mycelium and spores of the larger forms. The 

 Tulasnes were at work, and had described several of the 

 " Rusts," &c., before De Bary's book came out, and by 

 1853 the development of the Ergot of rye had been ob- 

 served. Then followed their brilliant descriptions of the 

 development and germination of the spores of Cystopus, 

 Puccitiia, Tilletia, Ustilago, and in 1861-65 Tulasne's 

 " Selecta Fungorum Carpologia " appeared. 



De Bary was already bringing forward the methods 

 which distinguish his work so eminently from the ana- 

 tomical method of his predecessors, and by 1863 he had 

 not only cultivated many forms of Fungi, and re- 

 peatedly seen the sexual organs of the Peronosporece, but 

 he showed that the fructification of the Ascomycetes is 

 also to be traced back to the interaction of sexual or- 

 gans. These may be regarded as the starting-points of 

 the long series of researches into the sexuality of the 

 Fungi which have already led to such remarkable results, 

 and with which the names of De Bary and his school are 

 so intimately associated. 



In 1864, De Bary published the second edition of his 

 book on the Myxomycetes (the first edition was in Zeitschr. 



fiir Wiss. Zool. 1859), and we ought to point out that the 

 first edition of this work, coming at the time when the 

 observations on zoospores by A. Braun, Thuret, Nageli, 

 Pringsheim, and De Bary himself, were astounding the 

 botanical world, helped much towards clearer conceptions 

 regarding the " sarcode " of the zoologists, and the 

 protoplasm of the botanists. 



This year (1864) also saw the first number of the 

 celebrated " Beitriige zur Morph. u. Phys. d. Pilze," and 

 in 1865 were produced the startling results of his further 

 cultures of parasitic Fungi, in which he showed how — by 

 regarding a parasite as an organism to be cultivated on 

 its proper medium, just as we regard wheat as an 

 organism to be grown on suitable soil — its life-history can 

 be followed without those large breaks in continuity 

 which render so much of the anatomical evidence worth- 

 less. By means of these researches De Bary proved the 

 entrance of the parasitic Fungus into the host, and its 

 progress in the tissues, so conclusively that any doubts 

 still lurking on the main subject were for ever dispersed. 

 The importance of these results cannot be rated too 

 highly : they not only entirely altered the position of 

 the agriculturist towards his fungoid enemies, but they 

 introduced a new era in medicine. Their bearings on 

 science were simply beyond valuation. From this point 

 onwards the continuous observations of cultures under 

 the microscope became extensive; and in the hands of 

 those who were not too readily deterred by the technical 

 difficulties and the laborious patience of such researches, 

 there sprang up the beginnings of that knowledge of the 

 diseases of pl.ints which is now taking shape under the 

 action of workers trained by De Bary himself. 



Nor was this all. The startling facts of heteroecism 

 were at the same time put before the world, and on such 

 evidence that none could reject the phenomenon : De Bary 

 proved that the so-called /Ectdium of the Berbery is only 

 a phase in the life-history of the pticcinia of the rust of 

 wheat. The repeated confirmation of this in later 

 years, and the numerous similar cases which have been 

 discovered since, sufficiently attest the accuracy of the 

 original work ; while its practical importance is obvious. 



In 1866 was published the first edition of the " Mor- 

 phologie und Physiologie der Pilze, Flechten, und Myxo- 

 myceten," a book which gave definiteness to the scattered 

 knowledge of these organisms, and enabled the scientific 

 world to see clearly the remarkable power of the man. 

 His unflinching honesty and rigorous self-criticism and 

 modesty had already attracted the attention of all who 

 came in contact with him or his work ; now, however, 

 was seen the marvellous grasp of details, and the power 

 of logical generalization which he possessed, and thence- 

 forward the name of De Bary was associated with the 

 leadership of the modern school of biologists he was 

 himself creating. 



As evidence of his untiring industry, it maybe pointed 

 out that not only did he publish the second number of 

 the "Beitrage zur Morph. und Phys. d. Pilze" this year, but 

 he had already taken in hand that monument of laborious 

 investigation and critical reading, the " Comparative 

 Anatomy of the Phanerogams and Ferns," which was not 

 finished until 1877. The years 1869, 1870, and 1871 show 

 indications of his new labours — undertaken, it should be 

 mentioned, because the original plan had been interfered 

 with — in articles in the Botantsche Zcitung, on the epi- 

 dermis, on Cycads, &c. Nevertheless the third number 

 of the "Beitrage" appeared in 1870, full of new work, 

 and important, on the Erysiphece and Ascomycetes. 



During 1874 and 1875 he published two papers on the 

 fertilization and germination of Chara, and a memoir on 

 Protomyces. In 1877 was published his and Strasburger's 

 joint memoir on Acetabularia, and the book above 

 referred to — the " Comparative Anatomy of the Ferns and 

 Phanerogams "—was finished. The influence of this 

 work has been enormous : criticism has been cast on the 

 plan and mode of treatment, but probably all botanists 



